Pink Polka Dot Girls-Kelsey

Here is what Kelsey from the Pink Polka Dot Guild has to say...

The funny thing about doing something for the world is that it is
addictive. When I was younger, I always did little projects--a
coat drive, food drives, lemonade stands for animal shelters--but I
was always jumping from one thing to the next. Then Sydney died.
It kind of snapped me out of the little things, and showed me that
there was a lot that I could do. Sierra and Maddy and I all agreed
that we couldn't let this kind of disease strike another kid, another
family, another community. And so we created Pink Polka Dots. At
first we were just going to host the garage sale that Sydney had
started planning before her death, but when we approached the
hospital, and they told us about the Guild Association, it was a
perfect fit. It's been hard at times, and sometimes I really just
have to distance myself from why we're doing what we're doing
so that I can do it well--if I think about this terrible disease, or
about Sydney's death, then I can't function very well. But PPD
is so much apart of me now, I can't imagine life without it.

There's a lot more to me than PPD, of course. I hang out with
my friends every weekend, watching movies, going to the mall,
going ice skating. I'm involved in the Youth Legislature at the
YMCA, and I'm an amateur figure skater.

I also spend a lot of time doing creative things--I paint and
sketch a lot. My favorite subject is an apple. It's a challenge to
get the image on the paper to look not just like an apple, but
THE apple in front of me. I also write stories, and someday I hope
to be a published author. At the rate I'm going, that may never
happen, but for me it's the journey more than the destination that
matters. I love travelling--I even don't mind airport security, or
waking up at 3 am for the cheaper flights.

Pink Polka Dots has exposed me to so many things I wouldn't
otherwise get to do. I value the time I spend working on it, making
phone calls to guild members, selling raffle tickets for our annual raffle,
planning events, whatever I have to do. It's worth it.

Kelsey