HATS PROVIDE CHARITY-EVENT RUNNERS WITH HOPE AND FUNDS

Hats of hope™, founded in 1998 by Joan Yarmovsky, Dee Dee Pike and Wendy Friedman, creates and sells hats and with inspirational messages.

THE MONICA R. WEINSTEIN HAT BANK

On October 3, 2002 we lost an inspirational presence in our lives. Monica R. Weinstein, age 37, died after a lengthy battle with breast cancer. We were fortunate to know Monica in her roles as educator to our children and social activist. After receiving one of our hats, Monica took them on as one of her personal causes. After 9/11, she helped children to raise funds for purchase of the hats and then personally took them to NYC where she was asked to deliver them directly to families that had lost someone. During her own difficult struggle with the side effects of medications, Monica’s heart was with others. She saw children who were going through treatment and asked us to donate hats to them. Again, she personally delivered them. Inspired by Monica, 18 of her friends formed the “Move for Monica “ team. Wearing their hats of hope, they participated in the City of Hope’s Walk For Hope fundraiser.

Whatever Monica went through, her mind and heart were always focused on the next thing she could do to help others. She inspired us with her courage, her caring and her ability to bring HOPE to others.

To honor her life, we have created the MONICA R. WEINSTEIN HAT BANK. In addition to donating money to various organizations, we use part of our proceeds to fund a Hat Bank, providing hats to hospitals, clinics and support groups.

Hat donations can be made by clicking here.

Partial List of Recipients:

American Cancer Society GA
Art For Hope MA
Camp Make a Dream MT
City of Hope CA
Dana Farber Cancer Institute MA
Emerson Hosp. Bethke Cancer Center MA
Emory Hospital GA
Friends for Hope KY
Happiness is Camping
Jimmy Fund Clinic at the Dana Farber MA
John R. Marsh Cancer Center MD
Kids in Need MA
Lowell General Cancer Center MA
Marian Cancer Center CA
Massachusetts General Hospital MA
Neely House MA
Sharsharet NJ
Sibley Memorial Hospital DC
St. Jude Hospital and Research Center TN
St. Rose Hospital, NV NV
Tampa Hope Lodge FL
Tufts NEMC MA
Univ. Of Kansas Med. Center. KS
Y-ME IL

Hats of Hope are en route to NYC
by Diana Brown, Northwest Notebook Column of Boston Sunday Globe - October 7, 2001

When Joan Yarmovsky and her business partners teamed up two years ago to make hats emblazoned with messages of hope, they were thinking of their friends going through chemotherapy.

Then came Sept. 11. The four partners in Hats of Hope in Lexington looked at their denim blue hat with a red brim and white writing and had an idea. They sent 100 caps to the firefighters in New York City.

"We decided this hat is for anyone struggling and going through a hard time," Yarmovsky said.

Under the brim of the hat is the word "hope," so the wearer can look up and see it at a glance. Inside each hat is one of two sets of phrases. One set includes: "The only courage that matters is the one that gets you from one moment to the next" (Mignon McLaughlin); "Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet" (Helen Keller); "Sigh. Sob. Scream. Laugh. Repeat."; and "Do the thing you think you cannot do" (Eleanor Roosevelt).

The other version's phrases are: "A river flows around stones and finds its own way"; "Crazy times call for crazy actions"; "Whatever it takes"; and "I can get there from here."

"We had a lot of friends going through treatment for cancer, and we decided words help people get through hard times," Yarmovsky said.

So they put their words in an easy place for people to find inspiration at a glance and started distributing them to hospital gift shops and to nurses to hand out free to chemotherapy patients.

The hat touched a cord with one of the rescue workers. In an e-mail to Yarmovsky, Al Juliano, president of Mid-Atlantic Regional Search and Rescue from Absecon, N.J., wrote: "The positive messages of hope inside reminded me that in all of the stories of courage we heard and saw in all of the acts of kindness shown to us by the citizens of New York, the most enduring memory I carry with me is this recurring one of 'Hope,'" he wrote.

"We sometimes never know what ripple effect our work will have, but I can tell you that every time I look at my Hat of Hope, I will remember the people of New York and I know that they will pull through this."

During the last two years, Yarmovsky and her partners, Dee Dee Pike and Wendy Friedman, both of Lexington, and Pamela Bennett of Stamford, Conn., said they sold 10,000 hats, with a portion of the proceeds going to the American Cancer Society, the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, and the American Pain Foundation.

Now, 50 percent of the sales on the $20 red, white, and blue hats will go to the American Red Cross. Yarmovsky said she hopes that "in the days ahead and in the trauma ahead, these hats will help."

For more information about Hats of Hope, call 781-862-7603 or visit their Web site at www.hatsofhope.com.

Dee Dee Pike, Joan Yarmovsky and Pamela Bennett are extending a message of hope to people they will never meet. In fact, they have several such messages, and they keep them all under their hats.

Pike and Yarmovsky, from Lexington, and Bennett, from Derry, N.H., are three women with backgrounds in helping professions who joined forces a year ago to create Hats of Hope--unisex, baseball-type caps with the word "Hope" embroidered under the brim, and inspirational messages silk-screened inside. The caps are sold almost exclusively in locations where hope is a vital commodity for health.

Their mission, the women say, is to help others get through hard times by mustering their inner resources. The hats, with messages that are sometime humorous and sometimes poignant, are intended to help people draw upon their own emotional strength.

The women derived their inspiration from personal involvement with people dealing with serious illness, in particular women who had lost their hair to cancer-related chemotherapy treatments.

"We were all involved in different things," Pike explained. "Pamela is a nurse consultant; Joan is a teacher; I'm a psychologist and I also had been working with people who have chronic illness. We had all been bumping up against people coping with hard times. And we were really struck by their words. We were so astounded by what people said to themselves to get through."

"We started there," Yarmovsky said...

"And everything fell into place," said Bennett.

Hats of Hope was born and the trio, admitted neophytes in sales and marketing, forged ahead with what they knew was a good idea.

"We went all the way," Yarmovsky said. "We bought 3,000 hats without anyone to buy them."

The business women assembled three message groups; each hat has one group containing four selections. Messages include the words of Eleanor Roosevelt ("Do the thing you think you cannot do") and Gilda Radner ("I base most of my fashion taste on what doesn't itch."); and sayings such as "Sigh. Sob. Scream. Laugh. Repeat," and "A river flows around stones and finds its own way."

Even the Hats of Hope logo, a flower blooming from an upsidedown baseball cap, bears a message. "When you're going through a crisis, your life is upside down," Yarmovsky said.

With 3,000 hats in their hands, the women began their business by visiting hospital gift shops. The response was positive, and Hats of Hope are now available in locations including the Gillette Center at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the Lahey Clinic, and the oncology center at Mass. General Hospital; at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona; and at the Rosie O'Donnell Center in New York.

That exposure, combined with a Web site presence, has led to other venues for the hats.

"We have people use them on (benefit) walks, we've had people buy them for friends, we've had people buy them for cancer centers," Pike said. Hats of Hope were sold this year at the PanMass Challenge. And the women know that an entire support group wore the hats during a recent Relay for Life in Portland.

"It's not just people who are sick," Bennett explained. "A lot of people are going through a difficult time," including divorce or bereavement. "My step-mom has MS and she says she loves her hat. She says it's something she can pass on. It's meaningful to her."

Some people buy a hat to wear in support of another person going through a difficult time, Pike said. And, added Bennett, there was one woman who bought hats for each of five oncology nurses.

"People who buy our hats all have a story to tell," Yarmovsky said.

And some people tell those stories on the Hats of Hope Web site. "We think it's important for people to share their stories. When you share your story, you share part of who you are," Bennett said. The Web site has stories, messages, and even photos, with an on-line photo album recently added to the site.

Fortified by such a promising beginning, the women already are looking ahead. They are considering designs for other types of hats. They would also like to work more closely with foundations and organizations to have Hats of Hope used in fund-raisers. And perhaps closest to their hearts is a mission to find funding to enable every person undergoing hospital treatment for an illness such as cancer to have a hat on their head.

Hats of Hope retail for $20; partial proceeds support the American Cancer Society Hope Lodge, the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation and the American Pain Foundation. Hats of Hope can be reached by phone at 781-862-7603, by fax at 781-862-7603, and at Web site www.hatsofhope.com.

LEXINGTON - In the face of personal challenge, there is often no better therapy than the caring support of others, be they individuals or groups. Joan Yarmovsky, Dee Dee Pike and Wendy Friedman's unusually altruistic venture goes to the hat of the matter, so to speak. Since 1999, they have manufactured "hats of hope" baseball caps, embroidered with messages of support, inspiration and encouragement. The company began as the brainchild of the three women, each coming from a different arena but familiar with the struggles people go through as they face illness.

"When we began, we were three women with different backgrounds," says Yarmovsky. (Pike, a psychologist, was working with people who had chronic illness, Yarmovsky was an educator, and Friedman an MBA working in the nonprofit/healthcare area.) "Although we came from varied places, we've all been moved by being part of people's struggles."

The women, who had friends in treatment for cancer, began distributing their product to hospital gift shops and nurses, who handed them out free to chemotherapy patients. Not surprisingly, they caught on; 10,000 were sold in the first two years alone.

The 100 percent cotton hats are purposefully, yet whimsically designed. Under the brim is the word "hope," which is viewable at all times by the wearer. Varied phrases line the insides. For "Hair Loss," two of the messages are: "I'd rather my hair than my mind," and "I base most of my fashion taste on what doesn't itch" (Gilda Radner). The "Inspirational" group includes "Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet," (Helen Keller) and "Sigh. Sob. Scream. Laugh. Repeat."

One of the series features folk singer Debbie Friedman and Rabbi Drorah Setel's reworking of the Jewish prayer for the sick, Mi Shebeirach: "Mi Shebeirach imoteinu, m'kor habracha l'avonteinu. Bless those in need of healing with r'fua sh'leima, The renewal of spirit, And let us say, Amen." After Sept. 11, they sent 100 to NYC firefighters. A rescue worker called them his "most enduring memory."

They recently attended the Oncology Nursing Society Meeting in D.C. "Novartis Pharmaceuticals gave out 7000 of our hats to nurses," says Yarmovsky. "Each had special messages acknowledging their care and heart.

"A Jewish chaplain at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Texas decided to give our Mi Shebeirach hats out to Jewish patients receiving treatment for cancer. We also had several rabbis purchase the hats with discretionary funds to give to people in the congregation who are in need of healing. Wear Hope ... Give Hope continues."

They will be attending the CAJE (Conference on Alternatives in Jewish Education) conference in San Antonio in August.

The hats carry financial support as well. A portion of their proceeds go to the American Cancer Society, the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation and the American Pain Foundation. The Mi Shebeirach hats help Hadassah and Chai Lifeline, and since Sept. 11, half of the selling price of the $20 red, white and blue hats has gone to the American Red Cross. Hats of Hope are available at www.hatsofhope.com, or in hospital gift shops nationwide. They are offered for $10 to any groups such as synagogues, schools or community organizations who wish to use the hats in social action projects.

For those undergoing chemotherapy who could stand some uplift, Hats of Hope, a company based in Lexington, Mass., manufactures baseball caps embroidered with words of prayer and encouragement.

"We unfortunately had friends and family who were struggling through cancer treatment," said Joan Yarmovsky, a former French teacher who with two business partners founded Hats of Hope in 1999. "We talked a lot about how words help people get to the other side."

The 100% cotton caps have "hope" emblazoned on the underside of the brim and inspirational quotes or motivational phrases printed under the crown. They come in four varieties: "hair loss," "inspirational," "you can do it" and the latest addition to the collection, a cap that features lyrics from folksinger Debbie Friedman and Rabbi Drorah Setel's rendition of "Mi Shebeirach," the Jewish prayer for the sick. "Mi shebeirach imoteinu/ m'kor habracha l'avoteinu/ Bless those in need of healing/ With r'fua sh'leima,/ The renewal of body,/ The renewal of spirit,/ And let us say, Amen," the hat says.

A portion of the proceeds from the "Mi Shebeirach" hats go to Hadassah and Chai Lifeline, an organization dedicated to "fighting illness with love." Some of the proceeds from the other hats go to victims of the attacks on the World Trade Center. Hats of Hope are available for $20 online at www.hatsofhope.com or in hospital gift shops across the country. Synagogues, schools and other organizations looking to give the hats as part of a social-action project may purchase the hats for $10.