{"id":3377,"date":"2017-04-27T16:22:22","date_gmt":"2017-04-27T20:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/?p=3377"},"modified":"2017-04-27T16:22:22","modified_gmt":"2017-04-27T20:22:22","slug":"halo-keepers-brings-smiles-young-cancer-fighters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/halo-keepers-brings-smiles-young-cancer-fighters\/","title":{"rendered":"Halo Keepers brings smiles to young cancer fighters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Angela Higginbotham<\/em><br \/>\n<em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">angela@floridanewsline.com<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Founded in 2016, Halo Keepers has already made a huge impact in its short time for many children going through the unimaginable. The nonprofit charity is dedicated to enhancing the lives of children battling cancer by providing the comfort of a soft wig. The organization started when a few volunteers gave their time to make wigs for children at Nemours Children\u2019s Hospital in Jacksonville. The community support grew rapidly within St. Johns County\/Jacksonville through networking and today, Halo Keepers has approximately 650 members. Dedicated volunteers have mailed at least 350 wigs to cancer-stricken children in many states and countries all over the world. <\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThe wigs are made from very soft yarn. The kids can play dress up with them or wear them as often as they like. We wanted to give these brave children a fun and beautiful option. Most of these children have hair loss or sensitive skin and are unable to wear traditional wigs. These kids go through so much on a regular basis, we just want to make them smile,\u201d Halo Keepers founder, Heather Curtis said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Halo Keepers is a tax exempt charity and new members are always welcome. The organization is in desperate need of volunteers who are able to crochet beanies, crowns, starfish and snowflakes. Patterns can be found on the Halo Keepers website and all of the beanies must be made with a soft yarn. Those interested in volunteering and learning the wig making process, also those who want to learn how to crochet, can join class on Wednesdays from 10 a.m. \u2013 12 p.m. at Whole Foods in Mandarin. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cInitially, we purchased all of the soft yarn ourselves, but now much of it is donated or we receive donated gift cards, so that we can buy it. Corporate donors, monetary donations and yarn drives are all important ways to help provide the supplies needed to get these wigs out to the children,\u201d Curtis said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This year, in the United States alone, 13,500 children will be diagnosed with cancer. The taxpayer funded, National Cancer Institute (NCI), allows only 4 percent of the annual budget to the effort of finding a cure for childhood cancer. New treatments lack funding and therefore, may never have the opportunity to make an impact. Halo Keepers simply hopes to draw attention to childhood cancer research, while also giving a distraction to those who suffer from it. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Halo Keepers will proudly hold its first annual Princess and Superhero Ball on April 29, 2017. Children in the community who are battling cancer or are currently in remission, can enjoy the event with their families. The Princess and Superhero Ball is a magical event that the Halo Keepers organization hopes to become a yearly tradition for children in the St. Johns County \/ Jacksonville area for many years to come. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Visit www.halokeepers.org for more information and to help bring a smile to a young cancer fighter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Photo courtesy Halo Keepers<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Volunteers work on soft yarn wigs for young cancer patients<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Angela Higginbotham angela@floridanewsline.com Founded in 2016, Halo Keepers has already made a huge impact in its short time for many children going through the unimaginable. The nonprofit charity is dedicated to enhancing the lives of children battling cancer by providing the comfort of a soft wig. The organization started when a few volunteers gave [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3378,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3377","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-creekline-st-johns"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Halo Keepers brings smiles to young cancer fighters - Florida NewsLine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"CreekLineBy Angela Higginbotham angela@floridanewsline.com Founded in 2016, Halo Keepers has already made a huge impact in its short time for many children going\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/halo-keepers-brings-smiles-young-cancer-fighters\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Halo Keepers brings smiles to young cancer fighters - Florida NewsLine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"CreekLineBy Angela Higginbotham angela@floridanewsline.com Founded in 2016, Halo Keepers has already made a huge impact in its short time for many children going\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/halo-keepers-brings-smiles-young-cancer-fighters\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Florida NewsLine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheFloridaNewsLine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-04-27T20:22:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/TCL-Halo-Keepers-1705A-e1493324511131-1001x1024.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1001\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"editor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@floridanewsline\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@floridanewsline\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"editor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/halo-keepers-brings-smiles-young-cancer-fighters\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/halo-keepers-brings-smiles-young-cancer-fighters\/\",\"name\":\"Halo Keepers brings smiles to young cancer fighters - Florida NewsLine\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/halo-keepers-brings-smiles-young-cancer-fighters\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/halo-keepers-brings-smiles-young-cancer-fighters\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/TCL-Halo-Keepers-1705A-e1493324511131.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-04-27T20:22:22+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/#\/schema\/person\/f112e5505697e0e24f438c3562ad0fcc\"},\"description\":\"CreekLineBy Angela Higginbotham angela@floridanewsline.com Founded in 2016, Halo Keepers has already made a huge impact in its short time for many children going\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/halo-keepers-brings-smiles-young-cancer-fighters\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/halo-keepers-brings-smiles-young-cancer-fighters\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/halo-keepers-brings-smiles-young-cancer-fighters\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/TCL-Halo-Keepers-1705A-e1493324511131.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/TCL-Halo-Keepers-1705A-e1493324511131.jpg\",\"width\":2448,\"height\":2505},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/halo-keepers-brings-smiles-young-cancer-fighters\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Halo Keepers brings smiles to young cancer fighters\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/\",\"name\":\"Florida NewsLine\",\"description\":\"The Newspapers Everybody Gets\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/#\/schema\/person\/f112e5505697e0e24f438c3562ad0fcc\",\"name\":\"editor\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/author\/editor\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Halo Keepers brings smiles to young cancer fighters - Florida NewsLine","description":"CreekLineBy Angela Higginbotham angela@floridanewsline.com Founded in 2016, Halo Keepers has already made a huge impact in its short time for many children going","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/halo-keepers-brings-smiles-young-cancer-fighters\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Halo Keepers brings smiles to young cancer fighters - Florida NewsLine","og_description":"CreekLineBy Angela Higginbotham angela@floridanewsline.com Founded in 2016, Halo Keepers has already made a huge impact in its short time for many children going","og_url":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/halo-keepers-brings-smiles-young-cancer-fighters\/","og_site_name":"Florida NewsLine","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheFloridaNewsLine\/","article_published_time":"2017-04-27T20:22:22+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1001,"height":1024,"url":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/TCL-Halo-Keepers-1705A-e1493324511131-1001x1024.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"editor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@floridanewsline","twitter_site":"@floridanewsline","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"editor","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/halo-keepers-brings-smiles-young-cancer-fighters\/","url":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/halo-keepers-brings-smiles-young-cancer-fighters\/","name":"Halo Keepers brings smiles to young cancer fighters - Florida NewsLine","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/halo-keepers-brings-smiles-young-cancer-fighters\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/halo-keepers-brings-smiles-young-cancer-fighters\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/TCL-Halo-Keepers-1705A-e1493324511131.jpg","datePublished":"2017-04-27T20:22:22+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/#\/schema\/person\/f112e5505697e0e24f438c3562ad0fcc"},"description":"CreekLineBy Angela Higginbotham angela@floridanewsline.com Founded in 2016, Halo Keepers has already made a huge impact in its short time for many children going","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/halo-keepers-brings-smiles-young-cancer-fighters\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/halo-keepers-brings-smiles-young-cancer-fighters\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/halo-keepers-brings-smiles-young-cancer-fighters\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/TCL-Halo-Keepers-1705A-e1493324511131.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/TCL-Halo-Keepers-1705A-e1493324511131.jpg","width":2448,"height":2505},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/halo-keepers-brings-smiles-young-cancer-fighters\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Halo Keepers brings smiles to young cancer fighters"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/#website","url":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/","name":"Florida NewsLine","description":"The Newspapers Everybody Gets","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/#\/schema\/person\/f112e5505697e0e24f438c3562ad0fcc","name":"editor","url":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/author\/editor\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3377"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3379,"href":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3377\/revisions\/3379"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}