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Natick girl, 7, creates designs on reusable shopping bags for Jimmy Fund fundraiser

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Natick girl, 7, creates designs on reusable shopping bags for Jimmy Fund fundraiser

NATICK — A 7-year-old local girl is designing shopping bags as a way of giving back to the hospital that provided her with medical care.

Emelie Brosnihan made two designs for reusable shopping bags in order to benefit the Jimmy Fund, a Boston-based charity affiliated with the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Emelie has been a patient at Dana-Farber’s Jimmy Fund Clinic since August 2022. Her mother, Kate, told the Daily News that Emelie began experiencing severe stomach pain and discovered a bump on her right side.

Testing revealed that Emelie had a bilateral Wilms tumor, a form of kidney cancer. Her treatment included surgery, chemotherapy and trial medications at Dana-Farber.

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Now Emelie is giving back. She designed two reusable shopping bags that are sold at HomeGoods and Homesense, two retail chains owned by Framingham-based TJX Companies Inc., as part of the Jimmy Fund fundraising campaign.

Emelie’s love for crafts steered her toward Jimmy Fund bag campaign

Kate Brosnihan said in a phone interview that she got started with the campaign because Emelie loved doing crafts whenever they visited the Jimmy Fund Clinic.

“This bag campaign is one of the big fundraisers, and so they know how much Emelie loves doing crafts when she’s at the Jimmy Fund clinic, and so they asked if she would like to be the bag designer for this year,” Kate Brosnihan said.

Emelie said it was cool seeing her bag in stores, and that a design of a panda holding a watermelon was her favorite.

“It’s been fun,” her mother said. “A lot of friends and family have texted us photos of the fact that they’ve purchased (a bag). Every time we get one, we show it to Emelie. The smile on her face is huge.”

Who benefits from sales of the newly designed bags?

The Emelie-designed bags are part of a fundraising partnership between Dana-Farber’s Jimmy Fund and HomeGoods and Homesense.

For each bag purchased, HomeGoods and Homesense will contribute 50% of the purchase price to the Jimmy Fund and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, according to Rebecca Gavin, vice president of annual, planned & institutional giving at Dana-Farber.

“This is part of HomeGoods’ Find Home Anywhere commitment,” Gavin said. The Find Home Anywhere campaign partners with Dana-Farber and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, to raise money to help families facing cancer treatment. Since 2002, HomeGoods has raised more than $27 million nationwide through annual in-store fundraisers and the sale of charitable merchandise, according to the retailer’s website.

“What that means is that they try to help people feel a sense of belonging, no matter where they are, no matter where life takes them,” Gavin said.

“Fifty percent of the proceeds go to families like ours,” Brosnihan added. “Not only for the important cancer research, but also the patient care piece. One of the things that Dana-Farber is fantastic at is really making you feel like you’re family and helping with the mental health piece.”

Previously, fundraising proceeds have gone to Dana-Farber programs such as the opening of a young adult lounge and housing assistance provided on a rolling basis to pediatric patient families facing financial hardship. The grants cover rent or mortgage.

More than 750 stores are participating in the campaign.

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