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Sarah finds a silver lining

by Dolores Fox Ciardelli

When Sarah Banholzer, 10, visited the Smithsonian Gift Shop in Washington, D.C. this year, she spotted an ornament made of recycled magazines.

Since she loves crafts, she bought the ornament to duplicate. As the season approached, Sarah had the idea to make lots of the ornaments and sell them to benefit Children's Hospital in Oakland. The, after some additional 'brainstorming', she decided to buy presents for the children that have to be in the hospital on Christmas Day.

Sarah knows what it's like to be in the hospital. At age 5 she was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and endured 16 months of treatments, which succeeded in putting the disease into remission. Today her health is excellent.

"She does everything a 'normal' kid does -- swims on a swim team, plays on a softball team, enjoys spending time with her friends and such," her mom Teri said. "We are so very grateful to Children's Hospital for all that they did to help Sarah beat this."

Sarah, with some help from her parents Teri and John, created more than 250 of the ornaments, which she sold along with hot cocoa Dec. 8-9 from a stand in front of their home on St. Mary Street.

Having raised more than $1,000, she went shopping last weekend, filling three carts high with toys to take to the hospital this week.

"Hopefully we can bring a smile to these children's faces with a special gift for them," Sarah and Teri wrote in an email.