75. Holly Christensen with 'The Magic Yarn Project' and Making Fun Character Wigs for Children Experiencing Hair Loss from Cancer Treatments

Holly Christensen is a wife and homeschooling mom of three children, running her nonprofit ‘The Magic Yarn Project’ from her home. It all started several years ago when she decided to make a soft Rapunzel wig for a friend’s little girl who had been diagnosed with cancer. The wig was a hit…and Holly then started making more wigs for her local hospital, and from there her nonprofit took off. They’ve now delivered over 60,000 wigs to all 50 states and 52 countries around the world.

I loved this interview because Holly really shares some personal and tender stories. And she talks about The Magic Yarn Project's two-fold mission… to not only provide these fun character wigs and beanies to children experiencing hair loss because of cancer treatments or other conditions, but also their desire to give others the opportunity to experience the benefits of service and giving back.

Holly truly lives by the motto of ‘I can’t do everything, but I can do something.’ Listen to this episode to be inspired by her story and also be reminded that even small acts of love can make a difference.

Links mentioned in the episode:
The Magic Yarn Project Website
The Magic Yarn Project Instagram
The Magic Yarn Project Facebook
The Magic Yarn Project YouTube video

Follow the podcast on social media:
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Do Something More Facebook
Do Something More YouTube

Transcript

Melissa: Holly Christensen is a wife and homeschooling mom of three children, running her non profit the Magic Yarn Project from her home. It all started several years ago when she decided to make a soft Rapunzel wig for a friend's little girl who had been diagnosed with cancer. The wig was a hit and Holly then started making more wigs for her local hospital. And from there her nonprofit took off. They've now delivered over 60,000 wigs to all 50 states and 52 countries around the world. I love this interview because Holly really shares some personal and tender stories and she talks about the Magic Yarn Project's twofold mission to not only provide these fun character wigs and beanies to children experiencing hair loss because of cancer treatments or other conditions, but also their desire to give others the opportunity to experience the benefits of service and giving back. Holly truly lives by the motto of I can't do everything, but I can do something. Listen to this episode to be inspired by her story and also be reminded that even small acts of love can make a difference. Welcome to the Do Something More podcast.

Melissa: A service oriented show where we highlight the helpers who inspire us all to do something more. I'm your host, Melissa Draper. Thank you so much for being here. Welcome to another episode of the podcast and today we are talking about this awesome non profit called the Magic Yarn Project. And as my guest today I have Holly Christensen who founded and directs that nonprofit. But basically they provide fun character wigs.

Melissa: And beanies to children experiencing hair loss from cancer treatments or other medical conditions.

Melissa: So there's a great story behind it. We're going to hear that and also more of the things that they do now and how they run their nonprofit. But first I want to welcome to the podcast Hollywood. Welcome.

Melissa: Hi.

Holly: Thanks so much for having me on, Melissa.

Melissa: Well, let's just start off with you giving just a short introduction of yourself and then you have a beautiful story behind your nonprofit. There's a video on YouTube I would tell anyone to go watch if you want to get teary eyed. It's a beautiful video as well. You can start there with just telling us about you and the background behind how you got started.

Holly: I live in Palmer, Alaska which is a tiny town. Raised here, third generation Alaskan. I live live up here with my.

Holly: Husband and three children. Went down to BYU for college, Brigham.

Holly: University to nursing school and got my nursing degree. I originally went into nursing because I wanted to be a labor and delivery nurse. That was like my big dream. Shortly after I graduated, I got married, moved to Houston, Texas And a job opening.

Holly: Came up to work at MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Holly: Cancer was never on my radar of what I wanted to do as a nurse. I wanted to bring babies into the world. I. I didn't want to have to watch the extreme suffering of cancer. But to get a job at MD Anderson, it's the number one cancer hospital in the world. It is such a privilege to be.

Holly: Able to work at that facility.

Holly: And I knew that that is exactly where I needed to be.

Holly: I worked on a clinical trial floor.

Holly: It was extremely difficult.

Holly: We became so close to our patients.

Holly: A lot of them were so young. You don't find a lot of people.

Holly: In their 70s and 80s, towards the.

Holly: End of life, who are willing to go into clinical trials for cancer. So we saw a lot of people who were kind of. This was their last resort is to try a clinical trial, stage four, young, with families. And it was very difficult but very rewarding. I got close to a lot of my patients, and because I'd see my patients over and over again whenever they'd come in for their inpatient chemotherapy, it humanized a lot of the care that we gave.

Holly: We're no longer giving care to someone.

Holly: Who may just be there for a.

Holly: Few short hours, like in the ER.

Holly: Like, we are taking care of people who become like family to us.

Holly: So we see the whole range of.

Holly: All of their symptoms, the side effects from the medications, and we just become.

Holly: Extremely familiar with everything that goes on.

Holly: With a cancer treatment. And one thing that I learned taking care of all these patients, I see, I'm like, you know, they never have.

Holly: Any wigs on their heads.

Holly: You know, they.

Holly: They're bald.

Holly: Their hair falls out because of chemotherapy. No one wears wigs.

Holly: They're wearing scarves on their heads, or they wear beanies.

Holly: But I also noticed they wear very soft, comfy, cozy pants. And I remember a patient of mine.

Holly: Getting ready to go home.

Holly: He was being discharged to go home, and he's like, okay, I got to put my clothes back on. And he made some comment about how.

Holly: He hadn't worn jeans in a long time.

Holly: And he says, I just have to.

Holly: Tell you, because my wife says, make.

Holly: Sure that you let them know that the reason you're wearing sweatpants home is not because you're a slob. It's because jeans are so uncomfortable. A lot of chemotherapy causes a condition called neuropathy, where the nerve endings become extremely sensitive. So just the seam on, you know.

Holly: A stiff pair of jeans could be really irritating to their skin.

Holly: So, of course, wearing a traditional Wig is going to be extremely uncomfortable on those really tender post chemo scalps. So that was something I hadn't learned.

Holly: In nursing school, that it took taking care of these patients to realize all.

Holly: The different ways that they cope and adapt to the side effects of their medication. And that includes what they wear on their head. So one of my friends from nursing.

Holly: School who hadn't gone into a cancer.

Holly: This is fast forward years in the future. I found out that her nearly three year old daughter had been diagnosed with cancer.

Holly: And I reached out to her to.

Holly: Offer just some support and like, oh.

Holly: Hey, what, what kinds of treatments is she getting?

Holly: And she had beautiful long, curly blonde hair, loved princesses. Her hair was going to be falling.

Holly: Out and she said, well, at least.

Holly: They do have, you know, that there.

Holly: Are, there are options like locks of.

Holly: Love things for kids that go through chemotherapy and lose their hair. And I, but I knew that even.

Holly: Though there were these options for her.

Holly: Daughter, that her daughter is probably not.

Holly: Going to tolerate wearing those wigs. And so, you know, I said, oh.

Holly: Just get her some really cute beanies.

Holly: Nice head coverings are great.

Holly: But I just felt so, so bad for her because hair loss, even as an adult, knowing what you're going through, it's still difficult.

Holly: So how confusing and difficult is that for children?

Holly: And a beanie is just not the.

Holly: Same or scarf is not the same.

Holly: As having your hair. So I had made these really rudimentary yarn wigs for my own daughters for Halloween costumes. And I decided I was going to, on a soft crochet beanie cap, make.

Holly: A wig for my friend's daughter Lily.

Holly: And I was going to make her Rapunzel wig, like the longest yarn hair that I could possibly make. I was going to make long wig.

Holly: Sent it to her for her third birthday. She sent me pictures back of her daughter wearing a princess dress twirling in her.

Holly: And she knew Rapunzel hair and she said, you have to make more of these.

Holly: She wore her wig to the hospital to go get treatment and all the.

Holly: Other kids are wondering, where did you get that? She said, kids would absolutely love this.

Holly: You need to do this.

Holly: So I was in charge of coming up with a service activity for church and I thought, oh, I can teach some ladies in my church how to make yarn wigs. So we can do that, Make a few dozen and then donate them to our local children's hospital up here in Alaska. So I went on Facebook to ask.

Holly: For yarn donations so we could start collecting yarn for this project.

Holly: And that Facebook post Went viral.

Melissa: Wow.

Holly: And just hundreds of emails started pouring in, People wanting to know how they could get a wig for a child.

Holly: They knew who was battling cancer or.

Holly: How they could get involved, either by helping donate supplies or how they could learn. And so the rest is history. It was just kind of took on a life of its own. And we became a nonprofit, and we now have 12 chapters in the United States and two in Canada.

Melissa: Wow.

Holly: We've delivered wigs to children in all 50 states and in 52 countries around the world.

Holly: We've been operating for nine years now, and we've made over 60,000 wigs.

Melissa: Wow. That story is so amazing. And I think, especially when you add in the experience that you had as a nurse and the observations that you made made you uniquely prepared to make some.

Holly: Right.

Melissa: Exactly what her daughter needed. I think that is probably why it caught fire. Right. Why it so quickly grew and became so popular and. And so many people wanting to be part of it and. And volunteer with it as well. Well, how do you work now? So you've made these wigs yourself, but I'm sure now with so many that you're sending out that you want to make sure they have the quality and do the job that that first wig did. So how do you. How do you do that logistically? And how do you run your nonprofit now with the people that are making your wigs or. Because you have chapters all over and you're sending them all over the world?

Holly: So, yeah, so we early on, and.

Holly: We'Ve kind of improved and made new.

Holly: Ones as we've gone on. We have wig tutorials online.

Holly: We have our beanie patterns.

Holly: First of all, if anyone wants to learn how to make a wig, they first become approved to crochet our beanies. And then they can get free access to all of our character beanie patterns. Because we don't just make princess wigs. We also make superhero beanies. Spider Man, Batman, Captain America.

Holly: Bluey is really popular beanie that children.

Holly: Love, Mickey and Minnie Mouse. So we make all sorts of character beanies.

Holly: We have those patterns on our website for those that get approved to crochet for us.

Holly: Because these beanies do have to be a certain size. They have to be certain colors and.

Holly: Brands of yarn that are soft, like.

Holly: Super soft yarn for these really tender scalps.

Holly: And we also have our video tutorials on there.

Holly: Our chapters, they help to facilitate community events. So those who are just volunteering for us remote and don't know how to.

Holly: Crochet don't have access to our Wig tutorials. But if there is a chapter leader near you or, you know, near someone.

Holly: Who'S interested in getting involved, those chapters will hold wig making workshops where anyone in the community can come and learn how to make a wig for a child. The crochet pieces are all there, and they'll just teach those volunteers how to attach the yarn and then style it and bedazzle it and make it look fabulous. So our mission is twofold, is to.

Holly: Create magic in the lives of children battling cancer and to help inspire volunteerism.

Holly: To make a difference. So I never wanted this to become something where we train a select few individuals and outsource and we pay them.

Holly: To make these wigs for us.

Holly: There's such a magical component that they're volunteer made, 100% handmade, and that anyone can get involved and learn how to make a wig.

Holly: There are so many wonderful organizations that.

Holly: Help children with cancer. I think what makes ours unique is that it isn't just a $5 donation.

Holly: Going to a hospital or going to.

Holly: Childhood cancer research, which are needed and amazing things. But this is volunteering time to create.

Holly: A very particular gift for a child.

Holly: And that really, it resonates with people.

Holly: Who want to volunteer.

Holly: They're like, I am making this Jack.

Holly: Sparrow wig for a little boy who.

Holly: Is going to love this and it's going to change his whole day and make his really difficult or hurriedly difficult. Girls with the Jack spare wigs too.

Holly: Make their a really difficult time just a little bit easier.

Holly: It's such a tangible gift. And the comments and reports we get back from families are that these wigs and these beanies are magical. They're like, this is like a magical effect on my child. My child hasn't smiled in weeks.

Holly: She's been so sick.

Holly: She got your package and she's just dancing around, twirling around, singing let it go. And from all over the world, you know, no matter where, if they live in Kenya or Kentucky, we just get.

Holly: These testimonials from families that just say.

Holly: How wonderful it is for their child, but how healing it is as a parent to be able to see their child, just be a child again and be able to play, because they often.

Holly: Aren'T able to be around friends. They're isolated because they're so immune compromised.

Holly: They can't go to school or preschool or play dates. They're in pain, they feel sick, and.

Holly: They don't have the opportunity to just be kids.

Holly: And there's nothing like playing dress up that just helps a child to kind of take Them away from the difficult reality that they're facing.

Melissa: Yeah, absolutely. And there is power in the handmade gift, I think.

Melissa: So.

Melissa: There's. There's power and. And love that comes behind that. And as you said, the research and some of those other things are important, but helping them keep a little piece of their childhood is important, too. That's great. Well, I love how you say you have a twofold mission of not only serving these cancer families or other children that have these medical needs, but also spurring volunteerism. I know that on your website it said you've. You've had over 300,000 hours, you think, or hundreds of thousands of hours that have been donated. And how have you seen that? How have you. What are some of the stories or things that you've seen of the volunteers.

Melissa: That have been affected by their service?

Holly: You know, we've. We've had some volunteers who are housebound.

Holly: That are on disability, that can't leave.

Holly: Their home, face depression. They say, oh, I just started. You know, I found your project.

Holly: I started crocheting for you.

Holly: And this makes me excited during the day. This is helping my depression. I feel like I can still do something positive with my life even though I can't leave home. Those stories are so touching that it.

Holly: Is so healing and therapeutic for the.

Holly: Volunteers who are working on it. We have involved multiple women's prisons that have crochet groups inside of them in our project. And the women's prison up here in Alaska that was involved.

Holly: Their social workers said this was such.

Holly: An amazing and kind of.

Holly: It wasn't originally supposed to be, but.

Holly: Like, this has been an incredible rehabilitation.

Holly: Program for the women that were there in prison in order to be their crochet club. In order for those individuals to be.

Holly: A part of magic yarn, they couldn't.

Holly: Have any demerits for so long. They had to be on good behavior.

Holly: And again, they. They did amazing projects also.

Holly: They'd make blankets for newborn babies or.

Holly: Hats for the homeless. But there was just something different and.

Holly: Magical about making a wig for a.

Holly: Child battling cancer that she said created.

Holly: A shift in so many women and.

Holly: Their behavior because they wanted to be.

Holly: A part of this.

Holly: And being a part of this while.

Holly: In prison changed their behaviors, their attitudes, their outlook.

Holly: And she said, we've had some of these women that have been released back into civilian life that usually reoffend right.

Holly: Away, and they're actually seeking out positive things in their life.

Holly: Wow.

Holly: They've been transformed a bit in prison because they've realized that even if they've.

Holly: Made very poor life decisions in the past. That they still have the ability to affect the life of a child battling cancer.

Holly: That they can be the reason that.

Holly: A child smiles, that they are still worth doing something good with their life.

Holly: And doing something good in the world.

Holly: So we would love to.

Holly: We would love that to be a program in multiple prisons.

Holly: I know currently in Utah, I believe.

Holly: Like Salt Lake county area. I'm not exactly sure we currently have.

Holly: A women's prison who we're working on making the, making the beanies. And it's wonderful.

Holly: It's a wonderful part of the program.

Holly: And wonderful to know that it's also helping them while it also is providing.

Holly: This beautiful gift for children.

Melissa: Yeah, that is the beautiful thing about service. And volunteering is a two fold thing. And that's a testament to the healing power of service, being able to help other people. Well, as you were sharing that, I was curious also, from your perspective as a mom, as a wife, it seems this has, I think, been kind of a family affair for you too. And to go from this small project that you thought maybe was a one time thing or a small project to have a. To this huge operation that's I'm sure, a huge part of your life. How has that transformed you? Or how have you managed that all or how have you made those decisions that needed to be made along the way to what you were going to devote to the. And kind of a personal question there.

Holly: But it's hard because I don't know if I'm balancing it all very well most of the time because it is. It's like having a full time job that you just do because you love it. And I feel called to it. And I don't mind the personal question.

Holly: Actually to get even more personal. Before the magic yarn project started, before I made that first wig for Lily.

Holly: I'd been going through some depression. I think maybe postpartum was after I had my last child and not feeling a lot of joy having just I.

Holly: Think hormonal imbalances, just really, really struggling and praying and praying like I will.

Holly: Do anything, you know, praying to God.

Holly: I will do anything if you can.

Holly: Just take this away from me. And I got a very distinct impression one night at like 4am you need.

Holly: To find someone to serve.

Holly: And it was the next day I.

Holly: Found out about Lily having cancer.

Holly: And then it was like a little nudge.

Holly: You need to reach out to Rachel, her mom.

Holly: You need to reach out to her.

Holly: And then it was, you need to make her this wig it was just.

Holly: A very much like, and now you're going to do this for others. And that keeps me going because it is very all consuming, this project. It's running, running a business nearly full time. I have three kids. I homeschool them. It's really, really busy. And I do. I check in frequently with my family, with my husband. Is this still. Is this still what mom needs to be doing?

Holly: And I do.

Holly: I feel like this is really what I need to be doing. It doesn't take all of life's difficulties away to be doing it, but it does keep me grounded because I'm serving. And I just think service is one of the most mentally healing things that we can do as human beings to.

Holly: Heal us mentally, to heal us emotionally.

Holly: From whatever we're going through. And that's why I keep doing it.

Holly: I bring in my kids as much as possible. Now they're getting older, I'm trying to bring them in even more. We'll be doing a really large workshop in Boston this December, and I'm bringing them with me for the first time.

Holly: To one of these big events so that they can. And they can be a part of it and volunteer their time. So, yeah, it's. It feels like chaos. And if you could see behind my computer, my chaotic yarn space right now, it's a lot. And I think at this point, it's.

Holly: Been nine years that it's.

Holly: My kids don't remember a time without magic yarn. But we still just kind of take it like, okay, can we still handle this? Is this still something that we can do and.

Melissa: Right.

Holly: And it is. We find a way.

Melissa: Yeah. One step at a time. Good advice for anyone. And yeah, I should say here that you are funded solely by donations. You're 100% volunteer powered, and you're a nonprofit that is unique about what you do.

Holly: Yes.

Holly: And I totally understand why most nonprofits do have paid employees and paid staff.

Holly: We've never had the kinds of funds.

Holly: To be able to support that. And in a way, it's.

Holly: It's weird because I've almost been grateful for that.

Holly: I don't know that I'd want to be in a position where I could go, oh, should I get paid for this? Should I, should I start getting a.

Holly: Salary for doing all of this?

Holly: Because I feel like the only pressure is I just do what I can do. And we have about 10 to 15 of us who are actively working kind.

Holly: Of in the administrative staff. Again, all volunteers.

Holly: And I think they all feel the same way. They love being able to just serve and do whatever it is that they can to their best abilities. And we love to be able to tell those who donate supplies or donate funds their money. You know, the $5 that they can afford to say, none of this is going to pay our salary to give us a paycheck. It's all going to create and ship.

Holly: More wigs to children around the world.

Melissa: Well, that is inspiring for all of you and to be involved with all of that, as anyone might be listening, though, and if they felt inspired, there was a phrase that you said. There's, as I mentioned earlier, you have a video that was put out several years ago that kind of tells your story. But on there you said, as an oncology nurse, I've learned I can't do everything, but I can do something. And I love that reminder that every single one of us, we might not all feel called to start a nonprofit, but we, we all have something that we might feel prompted or inspired to do. And so with some of your background, I want to just get your general advice. We usually ask people general advice on the podcast for different ways to serve. And so I'd love to start first. With your background as an oncology nurse and the work you've done with some of these cancer patients, what general advice would you give to someone that wants to serve a friend or family member that has received that cancer diagnosis?

Holly: I think sometimes asking just talking to that if it's a child talking to.

Holly: Their parent or talking to that person.

Holly: Who'S been diagnosed to ask what it.

Holly: Is that they miss the most or.

Holly: That they need the most. Because again, it seems like a very obscure thing to give a child a wig. Like, it's lovely, it's nice, but it also is not anything that even just my nursing brain would have ever thought to do. And it's sweet. You see the pictures of the kids.

Holly: In their wigs smiling, and it does it. There is a tear jerker. It's wonderful.

Holly: But there was a point a few months into the Magic Yarn project when.

Holly: One of the little girls who received one of our first Ariel wigs passed away.

Holly: And this is back when we'd only.

Holly: Sent out a few hundred.

Holly: And so I really followed a lot of these kids journeys closely, and I just felt like I knew them. And so I think she was either.

Holly: Nearly three or had just turned three passed away.

Holly: And I just felt really low after that. I just felt like, you know, I.

Holly: Became a nurse to save lives.

Holly: And these wigs are not changing the prognosis or the outcome for Any of these children. This is kind of a silly gift. This doesn't really matter. Like, am I really going to spend all this time.

Holly: I've got my nursing degree.

Holly: Am I going to. I keep my license current, but am I going to put that, you know.

Holly: Part aside and do this, like, all the time?

Holly: I'm not saving anyone's life doing this.

Holly: And then her family on social media posted a picture when they placed her.

Holly: Headstone, and they placed this beautiful headstone, and on it, they used a picture.

Holly: Of her smiling, wearing her wig.

Melissa: Oh, wow.

Holly: When I saw it, I just started crying.

Holly: And I realized, you know, they had.

Holly: Posted so many beautiful pictures of their daughter when she. Before she had lost her hair, when.

Holly: She was bald and so cute, rocking her bald head.

Holly: Like, they took so many pictures, and this was the one they chose.

Holly: And I realized it's because they went through an awful year where they eventually ended up losing their daughter.

Holly: But that was one of the really.

Holly: Bright moments in their life.

Holly: And it didn't save her life, but.

Holly: It gave life to the moments that.

Holly: They had with her.

Holly: And that is where, you know, I tell myself again, I'm like, yes, I.

Holly: Can'T do everything, but I can do something. And this is something that I can do and that I can help other people to do, too, who want to make a difference.

Holly: And that. That phrase, that little slogan of I can't do everything, but I can do.

Holly: Something actually came from a colleague of.

Holly: Mine when I was at MD Anderson. I came back after a weekend, my birthday weekend away. I hadn't worked three or four days in a row.

Holly: And I came back and I saw.

Holly: Three obituaries of patients that I had.

Holly: Taken care of that had all passed away over the weekend.

Holly: And again, I just felt so crushed. And I just.

Holly: I started crying.

Holly: And I told this colleague, I said.

Holly: What are we even doing? We aren't rescue. We aren't saving them. We're supposed to be curing cancer. And they died anyway.

Holly: And she said, oh, Holly, we can't.

Holly: Do everything, but we can do something.

Holly: You know, with.

Holly: With this clinical trial, this clinical chemo.

Holly: We did give Mr. Smith six extra months that he never thought he'd have.

Holly: He was able to take his kids.

Holly: To Disneyland and enjoy it and be well enough to do that. And so she was able to point out all the things that we were able to do, even if we didn't save those three people's lives. And to anyone who wants to serve.

Holly: Who wants to make a difference in.

Holly: The world, that's what I would say sometimes we have this, these ambitions. If you're anything like me, like, I'm going to rescue the world and I'm.

Holly: Going to save everyone and I'm going to make such a difference and forget.

Holly: That really, really small acts of love make a really big difference and can make a really big difference. We've had nurses tell us that it.

Holly: Makes a difference in their day. Nurses who work with these young cancer.

Holly: Patients saying, our floor today looks like it's like Halloween. She's like, there's little Jack sparrows and Elsa's and Ariel's and Moana's just running all over and they're laughing and they're shrieking and it's like, am I in the hospital? Where are we even?

Holly: It's just completely changes the atmosphere and.

Holly: It'S something so simple. And I do believe, like as someone.

Holly: Who is religious, I just, I believe.

Holly: That God gives us these moments and little inspirations to help us lift others up, even in the small ways. And there's, you know, no act, no.

Holly: Small act of love is ever wasted or goes unnoticed.

Holly: And you don't have to be anything amazing or have all the knowledge to be able to make a difference. You can be an inmate in prison, you can be a 90 year old grandma, you can be a nurse, or.

Holly: You can be someone who's 10 years.

Holly: Old and you can come and make.

Holly: A difference in the life of someone.

Holly: Who'S having a hard time.

Melissa: Absolutely.

Melissa: I love how you've been able to get a front row seat to that with your nonprofit, to all the many people that have volunteered there. And as you said, there too, you may not be saving a life, but you're giving magic to life. And we can all do that in those small and simple ways. Well, Holly, this has been a great conversation and thank you so much for being a little vulnerable and sharing some of those personal stories. And I just want to make sure that we leave off with letting people know where they can find you if they either want to volunteer. Also, if they want to know how to request a wig, do the children, are they able to request what kind of wig or beanie they want?

Holly: Absolutely.

Holly: We have all of the different options.

Holly: We have over 30 options for children.

Holly: To choose from on our website. People can go on our website, click, request a wig.

Holly: We send wigs to individuals, but we.

Holly: Also work with over 154 hospitals and Ronald McDonald houses and other charities that.

Holly: Help distribute our wigs.

Holly: But we definitely, we.

Holly: Our priority are those individual wig requests.

Holly: That we get and and we love those, so.

Melissa: Great. Well, I'll put links to your website and your social media pages so anyone that's interested can go and learn more. Was there anything else you wanted to share with us as we finish off here?

Holly: I don't think so, no.

Holly: Thank you so much, Melissa.

Melissa: Yeah, this has been great. Thank you, Holly.

Melissa: That concludes my interview with Holly Christensen, the founder of the nonprofit the Magic Yarn Project. And I just loved in that interview how you can hear and feel the passion for what she does and her tender heart for those she's serving, and also just her passion and heart for service in general. I loved learning about her non profit, but I also just loved hearing her passion for serving and for helping others discover and experience that for themselves. It's so powerful. And the stories that she told, not just her own story, her own personal story, but the many others that she shared of how service has touched lives and changed people. And there really were some beautiful stories that she shared near the end that it can be hard. It can be hard when you're serving and you're down in the trenches and you're doing the kind of work that she was doing in her profession and now with her nonprofit. And you can wonder if it's even making a difference, if it matters, if you should be doing something more, something bigger. And I loved how she shared that sweet story of how she got a glimpse into the difference these sweet little wigs are making for these children and that it does matter. And I love that phrase that she said. She realized that no, she wasn't necessarily saving lives with the work they're doing through making these wigs, but they're giving life. They're giving magic to life, to families that are going through these hard experiences. And I thought that was a great reminder that sometimes that is the role of service. It's not there to suddenly fix things, to solve all the world's problems, but to lift, to show love, and to help give life to those who are struggling. And that really is something that any of us, that all of us can do. For Holly, she's found the answer in her nonprofit. And getting involved with something like that might be the answer for you, or it might be something else. But I encourage you to take the inspiring words that she shared here today and use them in your own life to decide where you can make a difference, where you can lift and help, and to know, as Holly said, that no, we cannot do everything, but all of us truly can do something. So I will leave links to her non profits to their website and social media pages. I will also leave a link to that YouTube video I mentioned that they made a few years ago. Kind of tells the story and background of the non profit if you're interested in watching that and so you can learn more to get involved. And I wanted to mention something else, especially for my listeners that are in Utah or near Utah, that Holly let me know that next September the Magic Yarn Project will be doing a big large conference in Sandy. So the purpose, the main purpose of this conference is to train their volunteers who they call their magic makers so they have a specific method that they have for doing these wigs so that they have the quality and fulfill the purpose they're wanting to fulfill for these children. That conference they will be training their magic makers. But then she also shared that the Saturday following that they are going to have a big event that any community.

Melissa: Member can show up and come to.

Melissa: And their goal that day is to make 500 wigs. And she said you can come, you.

Melissa: Don'T have to have any experience.

Melissa: They'll have all the different pieces and parts there and walk you through making a wig. So that's going to be next September, she said.

Melissa: I will keep posted on that.

Melissa: So if you stay with me, we'll make sure to share some more information about that. But if you were inspired by this non profit, I just wanted to give you a heads up on that.

Melissa: And I also want to just remind you if you want to support the.

Melissa: Podcast to please leave a rating or.

Melissa: A review, follow the podcast or you.

Melissa: Can also follow us on social media.

Melissa: Or share this episode with a friend. And of course this week I hope.

Melissa: You can find a way to do.

Melissa: Something, something more to help lift, inspire.

Melissa: Or make a difference.