Eleven-year-old Mya Healey has juvenile arthritis and has spent the past nine years of her life travelling back and forth between Grand Falls-Windsor and the Janeway for treatments.
This year she’ll be a Janeway Miracle Kid at the 34th annual Janeway Children’s Miracle Network Telethon on June 2-3 and she wants to give a huge donation.
“They take care of kids,” Mya explained in writing, as she has selective mutism thought to have developed because of the stress of frequent hospital visits over the years.
Mya was diagnosed with juvenile arthritis when she was just two years old. Every six weeks, she travels to St. John’s for infusion treatments, which helps her to be able to run and play like other children — something she couldn’t do before she received the treatments. Mya also takes daily medications and has frequent doctor visits.
“I’m sure that Mya’s quality of life and the way she lives day to day would not be possible without the help of everyone in the Janeway,” said her mother, Mandy Healey.
“I was thinking that this was going to be a fundraiser that we could probably raise, you know, four or five hundred bucks, to help boost our efforts. And in the last two weeks we’ve raised over $1,300. So, my fundraising goal has been blown out of the water.”
Mandy Healey
Mya is no stranger to fundraising efforts. She’s raised more than $10,000 in the past three years for the Arthritis Society, but this year she’d like to do something even bigger, and she’s hoping coffee lovers in St. John’s will help her out.
Through the Mya Healey Project, she’s organized her most recent fundraising effort called Cozies for Kids. Volunteers are busy knitting coffee cozies to be stocked at Fixed Coffee and Baking on Duckworth Street starting this Wednesday.
The Healeys will be coming to St. John’s Wednesday morning for Mya’s treatment at the Janeway, and they’ll deliver the coffee cozies to Fixed that afternoon.
There is no set price for the cozies — they are for purchase by donation.
Fixed Coffee and Baking owner Jonathan Howse says he will have a sale coming up soon where people get a free coffee when they donate to purchase a cozy. He says details about that will be posted on Fixed’s social media platforms nearer the date.
Currently, there are groups making cozies in Twillingate, Change Islands, Grand Falls-Windsor, and St. John’s.
“We’ve had people from all across the province step in and ask if they could help,” said Mandy Healey. “The more the merrier, we’re not going to turn down help.”
The family started the Cozies for Kids fundraiser in Grand Falls-Windsor where they live, but they are quickly branching out.
“I was thinking that this was going to be a fundraiser that we could probably raise, you know, four or five hundred bucks, to help boost our efforts. And in the last two weeks we’ve raised over $1,300. So, my fundraising goal has been blown out of the water.”
They’ve already sold more than 300 cozies and there’s still three months to go until the Janeway Telethon.
Knitters in St. John’s are welcome to donate their own cup cozies to the cause by dropping them off at Fixed Coffee and Baking. Volunteers can find information, including cup cozy patterns, on The Mya Healey Project Facebook group.
“We plan on continuing to sell them until the interest kind of dies down, because there’s only so many cozies you can have on your coffee at one time,” said Healey. “As it slows down in certain communities, we’ll then look at other locations.”
Any businesses interested in stocking the cozies can e-mail Healey at [email protected] or check out the Facebook group.
