Magic Yarn Project is truly magical

by Sally Jack

If you want to create a little magic and put a smile on the face of a child experiencing medical baldness, come to the South Chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints in Blanding on Saturday, October 25 to participate in the Magic Yarn Project.
Men, women, boys and girls ages 12 and above are invited to bring a friend and come and help with this special project. Interested volunteers may choose to participate on Saturday from 9 to 11:30 a.m., or 12:30 to 3 p.m. (or both).
Sixty volunteers are needed for each time slot. No special skills are needed and all supplies will be provided.
In about two hours, you and a helping friend will complete a wig and prepare it to be sent to a child experiencing medical hair loss from chemotherapy, alopecia, trichotillomania, and other causes.
The wigs are buttery soft, hypoallergenic, sturdy for playtime, and machine-washable. Kids can choose from over 50 different characters.
Every Magic Yarn wig is handcrafted with love by volunteers like you. Thanks to generous donors, the wigs are always free to the families who receive them.
As a cancer survivor, the Magic Yarn Project deeply touches my heart and soul.
I know firsthand what it feels like to be bald from chemo. As a mother of five children and grandmother of 17 grandchildren, just thinking about kids dealing with cancer makes me weep.
Knowing that these wigs can bring a spark of joy to these children and their families makes me smile.
I first learned about the Magic Yarn Project in 2017 when I read “Knitting Smiles” by Brittany Karford Rogers in BYU Magazine.
Holly Christensen created the first wig in 2015 for a friend’s daughter who had lymphoma. This little girl had spent 80 nights in the hospital over a seven-month period of time.
There were points when it looked like the child would die. As a nurse who had worked in oncology, Holly could offer insights and information to her former BYU nursing classmate and friend, but she wanted to do more.
She recalls looking at her girls’ Halloween wigs on the floor, when she was inspired with the idea of making a wig for the little girl. Using a beanie made of “baby-blanket-soft yarn,” she added a long blond braid to a crocheted beanie.
When the wig arrived in the mail, Holly’s friend said her daughter “put the wig right on, put on one of her princess dresses to go with it, and went outside to twirl in the grass.”
The sight was as much of a boost to her mother, Rachel, as it was to the princess twirling in her wig.
Rachel told Holly that she thought a lot of little girls at their hospital would love to have wigs like that. And the Magic Yarn Project was born.
Soon people were donating money, yarn, supplies, and time to the project. Women’s groups in local jails began crocheting beanies, and requests for wigs came pouring in.
Ten years later, over 82,000 wigs have been sent to children in all 50 states as well as 52 countries around the world from this non-profit organization.
In 2019, while at a Women’s Conference in Provo, my sister-in-law asked me to go with her to check out a service activity going on that she thought we might want to participate in.
As we slowly walked around the room we saw people making wigs of every kind: Elsa wigs, Rapunzel wigs, Cinderella, Batman, Mickey Mouse, and even Jack Sparrow wigs.
I was close to tears when I realized that this was the same project that had touched my heart when I read about it two years earlier! I couldn’t wait to get started!
A trained volunteer guided me through the process of making an Ariel wig for a little friend I would never meet, yet we would both share in its magic.
According to the article Knitting Smiles, by Brittany Rogers, Holly Christnesen, creator of the very first wig said, “A wig does not save lives or help these kids get treatment. But it allows them to be kids again . . . It can give them a magical escape.”
Due to some health complications during my cancer treatments, I found myself sitting in a chemo chair on Valentine’s Day. This was not my idea of fun, so I wore a wacky red hat with ribbons and roses on it to the hospital.
Though I admit I would rather have had a Rapunzel wig, the hat did make me feel a little bit better.
These Magic Yarn wigs truly are magical. And when it comes to being bald because you are spending all of your time going to doctor appointments and receiving treatments that make you feel sick, you need all the magic you can get.