Arthritis is a painful joint disorder that is typically associated with adulthood, yet in Canada as many as one in 1,000 children and teenagers are afflicted by juvenile idiopathic arthritis. One of those children is St. Clements’ Derek Beam, and the 10-year-old can sometimes spend days at a time at Sick Kids hospital in Toronto receiving joint injections to ease his pain. For the past three years, one of Derek’s classmates at St. Clement Catholic School, Taylor Kelly, has been working to raise money for juvenile arthritis research, and for the month of March, juvenile arthritis awareness month, she is selling candy kabobs to friends, family and schoolmates as part of a group called “Derek’s Destroyers.”
“We’re not going to destroy Derek; we’re going to destroy his arthritis,” laughed the 9-year-old as she sat in her family’s living room earlier this week, surrounded by boxes and bags of candy ranging from sour worms to gummy lips.
She’s already sold more than 100 of her candy creations, and hopes to sell about 200 before the end of the month. She has created a candy kabob workstation in her home, which includes pieces of wood with small holes drilled in them to hold the kabob skewers upright while she assembles them. Taylor has been getting some help from her eight-year-old brother, Cooper, and together they make a pretty good team, creating one kabob every two minutes.
In the past “Derek’s Destroyers” have held garage sales, benefit dances, a day called a Funtastathon modeled after the television show The Amazing Race, and they have also collected pledges to participate in the annual walk to fight arthritis at Bingemans in Kitchener for the past two years.
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They’ve collected a little more than $1,000 for arthritis research thus far, but this year they wanted to try something a little bit different. “We wanted it to be fun, but we still wanted there to be enough money to help support Derek, so candy kabobs can be a little more expensive and they’re fun,” said Taylor. The kabobs sell for $4 apiece, or $10 for three.
Derek isn’t the only experience she has had with people suffering from arthritis, though. Her mother, Laura, has it as well as her grandfather, and fundraising has been a part of Taylor’s life for years, according to her mother.
“She’s been raising money since she was in Junior Kindergarten for various causes, but over the past three years it’s mostly been for arthritis,” said Laura. “We’re really proud of her.” Word is spreading about Taylor and her candy kabobs as well; she was featured on a local news channel as one of their local heroes, and orders for kabobs have been pouring in. Nearly everyone at school has put in an order, as well as one boy in Waterloo whose parents ordered 45 for his birthday party instead of loot bags. If business keeps up, Taylor jokes she could go into business for herself.
“I should start my own business, because then it would be even more money for Derek,” she said with a laugh.
For more information on juvenile arthritis visit www.arthritis.ca or to order some candy kabobs email spiceytay@gmail.com.
