Olivia Brockhoff, a Grade 12 student at Holy Rosary High School, updated the Lloydminster Rotary Club on Monday on her multi-year Project PJ for the Stollery Children’s Hospital. Geoff Lee Meridian Source
Pyjamas can’t cure cancer, but they can provide comfort to youngsters being treated for the disease at the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton.
More than 8,000 pyjamas have been donated to the Stollery since 2015 when that charity thought popped into the mind of Olivia Brockhoff.
The Grade 12 student at Holy Rosary High School provided an overview of her Project PJ by Olivia at the Rotary Club of Lloydminster on Monday.
She says the idea to donate pyjamas to the Stollery came to her when she was 12-years-old and her friend’s little sister had cancer.
Her first-year goal was 100 pairs of PJs, which quickly ballooned to 500 and mushroomed to an annual record 3,800 pairs in 2019, to surpass her initial expectations.
“I thought I would have got a 100 and keep getting 100 every year, and it’s just kept growing,” she said.
Brockhoff attributes the success of the program to community spirit.
“Everybody in this amazing community, the hockey teams, the basketball teams the schools and businesses—everybody coming together, that’s what creates the Project PJ by Olivia,” she said.
The PWM Steelers and Bobcats added 694 pairs of pyjamas to the cause in late January.
Brockhoff plans to attend the University of Saskatchewan this fall and hopes to continue her pyjama project if she can make the time.
“I’ll have to talk to some of the staff members and board members, but I have talked to my career counsellors and I think it would be a great idea to continue it there,” she said.
Brockhoff says the charity experience has benefitted her personally in many ways.
“I’ve got to be a part of some amazing things like anti-bullying clubs, the Lloydminster Youth Council, just amazing things throughout the community and throughout Canada,” she said.
Last year, the teen virtually took part in the Rotary Adventure in Citizenship program.
She said her message to Rotary is to just keep donating and be kind to everyone in our community.
Anyone who wants to donate pyjamas can go to Project PJ by Olivia on Facebook or on Instagram or drop them off at OshKosh B’gosh or the Wayside Dental Centre.
