By Lisa Carolin
With Halloween quickly approaching, candy is on the minds of a lot of people, but especially the Fischer family.
Jennifer Fischer and her three sons Bradley, 16, a Chelsea High School student, Jack, 12, a Beach Middle School student, and Ben, 10, a student at South Meadows Elementary School, are busy collecting lollipops, which they plan to deliver to cancer centers in the area during the week of Halloween.
They have so far collected more than 800 lollipops and will continue to collect them through Friday, Oct. 26.
Chelsea business owner Susan Jacobs has added her business at 102 E. Middle St. (at the corner of Main and Middle streets) as a drop off location for donations.
The idea began in December of 2017, when the family heard about a young boy raising funds for a project in his community.
“The boys’ wheels began turning, and one of my sons said, ‘Hey mom, we should do something here in Chelsea,’ said Jennifer Fischer. “They finally decided on selling our homemade Oreo truffles. With 100 percent of the profit of the truffles they sold, they wanted to make Chemo Care Kits.”
The Chemo Care Kits include items to help ease the side effects for patients being treated with chemotherapy. The boys surpassed their goal and made 40 kits, which they donated to St. Joseph Mercy Chelsea’s cancer center.
“Soon the word spread, and we started receiving orders for office parties, birthday parties, baby and bridal showers,” said Jennifer Fischer. “We even had a few patients that wanted to order their own truffles and meet the boys in person to thank them. We continue to make Chemo Care Kits and have delivered many to friends and family members of our customers.”
The Fischers decided that with Halloween approaching, they wanted to do something special for cancer patients. They came up with suckers because hard candies help chemo patients with saliva production, help battle nausea, and because they go well with the tags they created that say, “Chemo sucks or cancer sucks but you’re going to lick it.”
“We put them in a reusable water bottle because we thought it would be another little something that chemo patients could use daily to stay hydrated,” said Jennifer Fischer.
Anyone interested in donating suckers, can either drop them at Jacobs’ business, or can email the Fischers at [email protected] and they will come pick up your donation.
