News

Read the "Angels on Her Shoulders" article featured in the Autumn issue of AAMC Magazine

Article in The Capital - Sept 19, 2007

AAMC honors charity's 25th Anniversary with luncheon, award

By WENDI WINTERS

For The Capital

Whether or not you believe in angels, they can still make miracles happen.

For 25 years, artist Bobbie Burnett and her merry band of Caring Collection volunteers have designed, crafted and sold thousands of glass angels made of love, sweat and hand-cut, stained glass. The proceeds from those angels have gone to fund cancer research at Johns Hopkins Oncology Center and cancer patient diagnostics, surgery and care at Anne Arundel Medical Center.

Each year, 18-wheelers pull up outside Mrs. Burnett's studio to drop off 7,000 pounds of art glass sheets, packed in huge crates.

"We've raised over $705,000 and split it between the two hospitals,” said Mrs. Burnett, who's 69. ”I'm hoping to live long enough to reach $1 million.”

Last week, 50 Caring Collection volunteers and the Burnett couple were feted at an elegant buffet luncheon hosted by AAMC president Martin ”Chip” Doorden, chief development officer Lisa Hillman, and appreciative AAMC doctors. Stan Watkins, medical director of AAMC's Cancer Initiative, radiation oncologist Mary Young, and the Breast Center's Lorraine Tafra were also present.

During the lunch, its hosts surprised Mrs. Burnett by presenting her with a special award noting the charity's 25th anniversary and AAMC's appreciation for Mrs. Burnett's dedication.

Reminding the audience that in 1982, the land was here, but this hospital wasn't here, Mrs. Hillman. There was also no mall, no Restaurant Park, no Route 97, but there was somebody here - Bobbie Burnett. She created this fabulous organization with the help of that fabulous guy at her side, Jerry Burnett. There were no computers, no cell phones, no Blackberries, but, somehow, she connected with all of these people,” she said.

”Years ago, Caring Collection made a decision to make us a focal point of their efforts, and helped save many, many lives,” stated Mr. Doorden, lauding Mrs. Burnett's leadership skills.

DeCesaris Cancer Institute's Dr. Mary Young pointed out the all-time favorite purchase funded by the Caring Collection was a blanket warmer. Sometimes, she said, a warm blanket and a hug from a nurse are more comforting to a cancer patient than cutting edge, high-tech equipment.

For the Cancer Institute, the Caring Collection has also purchased a computerized block cutter for masking parts of the body during radiation treatments, an AccuLoc System, immobilization devices and leg supports for diagnostic scanning, a belly board for pelvic treatments – ”a kind of luxury for us” – and new Eclipse Planning Stations.

Dr. Lorraine Tafra praised Mrs. Burnett as ”truly an amazing woman.” For her department, Caring Collection has purchased a SenoRX, sonor–directed tumor extraction machine and a Sentinel Node Biopsy for lymph node testing.

Angels are not all the Caring Collection volunteers create. At the request of a donor, the Ruland Family Dentistry practice, the volunteers created a large stained glass artwork – two colorful sailboats – which hangs in the large window of the therapy room of AAMC's 5th floor Joint Replacement Center. The artwork cheers on the patients struggling to regain control of their bodies. When sunlight shines through it, the bright twin sailboats appear to glide across the glass pane behind them.

They also cut, foil and assemble dozens of suncatchers or tree ornaments. For October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, they offer a stained-glass pink ribbon.

In 2001, the group faced a big deadline to complete a window for AAMC's Meditation Center. Mrs. Burnett's husband was seriously ill with heart problems and colon cancer, but ”the volunteers rallied to help me get it done in time,” marveled Mrs. Burnett.

Caring Collection is a non-profit organization comprised of a gently fluctuating group of about 90 volunteers, aged 12 to 92, who drop by the studio the three days each week to lend a hand. Their items are sold via the charity's Web site  www.caringcollection.org.

”Volunteers come from all kinds of backgrounds and handle many tasks,” Mrs. Burnett noted. ”Some come over from the middle and high schools. Last week, members of Spalding High School's Black Awareness group came. They helped assemble some of our shipping boxes and inserts. People of all ages work together in this studio. Some other volunteers pick up stuff and work on it at home. More volunteers are always welcome.”

”I've been volunteering for about two years,” said Marion Kay of Severna Park. ”I go one day a week and trace or foil things.”

Davidsonville resident Evelyn Esmacher said, ”My husband took a stained glass course at the South County Senior Center. He helped out a little and then I got involved. I've met some new friends.”

Originally from Middletown, NY., near West Point, Mrs. Burnett earned her bachelor's degree at SUNY of New Paltz and a Masters in Art at the University of Las Vegas. While living in San Diego, she and her husband built a 35-foot sailboat and sailed first to Texas, then Annapolis. Still living aboard the vessel at City Dock, she took stained glass courses at Maryland Hall.

When a friend, Susie Lyttle, became ill with leukemia in December 1982, Mrs. Burnett made her an angel to cheer her progress. For a while, Ms. Lyttle, a mom with three young kids and an unemployed husband, kept up the good fight.

Mrs. Burnett enlisted friends to make more angels to help fund her friend's recovery, and pay her mounting medical bills. When Ms. Lyttle lost her battle the following Christmas, the small band set up a fund in her name and continued making the angels in her memory through 1986.

From 1983 to 1986, funds also went to Johns Hopkins Oncology Center. From 1986 to 1988, AAMC was on the receiving end. From 1988 onward, the funds received from Caring Collection sales have been evenly divided between the two now-affiliated hospital centers and dedicated to cancer fighting efforts.

Some volunteers, like 90-year-old ”Ellie” have been with Caring Collection nearly two decades. Others, like Jadwiga Balzano and her two sons, Phillip, 19, and Max, 17, are more recent enlistees.

”Jerry and I don't have children, but these people are my extended family of friends,” said Mrs. Burnett. ”It isn't the amount of money they raise, it's the amount of caring. One person can do something, (but) working together, you can do more and grow.”

At the end of each year, all the volunteers gather in Mrs. Burnett's sunlit studio. The hospitals each provide a list of three items they'd like to purchase for research or care. Sometimes government matching funds are involved. Volunteers research the equipment online and vote on which equipment their efforts will purchase. ”They want the money to go to patients, not a building,” said Mrs. Burnett.

Devoting so much of her time to Caring Collection is her life, she said. ”I got started with the first angel and was only going to make one. It gained momentum. I got directed by angels in my life. When I'm tired and discouraged, someone always walks in with skills to do things I can't do.”

Besides, Mrs. Burnett said, ”It's fun. I wouldn't do it if it wasn't fun.”

Wendi Winters is a freelance writer who lives on the Broadneck Peninsula.

Published Sept 19, 2007, The Capital, Annapolis, Md.
Copyright 2007 The Capital, Annapolis, Md.

The Caring Collection was featured in the December 2004 issue of Chesapeake Life Magazine.

Bobbie's Angels

In a small basement studio along Clements Creek on the Severn River, a band of seventy volunteers take shifts throughout the week year-round, working together in what may be the world's only angel assembly line.

These volunteers make up the Caring Collection, Inc., a nonprofit group organized by art instructor Bobbie Burnett, sixty-six, who has been designing three-dimensional stained-glass angels in her home studio since 1982. The group turns out more than 3,000 a year, with all profits going to cancer research. Over the years, they have raised more than $500,000, which is divided between the Johns Hopkins Sydney Kimmel Cancer Center and Anne Arundel Medical Center's DeCesaris Institute in Annapolis.

Each eleven-inch angel requires between twenty and twenty-five hours to assemble and costs $65. The volunteers also make suncatchers ($15), stationery with angels (two boxes for $7), and smaller "guardian angels" that can be hung on Christmas trees or worn as pins ($15). Says Burnett, "No one knows when they'll need an angel.''

For more information, visit caringcollection.org. -Mary Grace Gallagher

CARING COLLECTION FEATURED IN THE DECEMBER 23, 2003 ISSUE OF FAMILY CIRCLE MAGAZINE

Article in The Sunday Capital - November 23, 2003 

Making angels to fight cancer
JULIE H. MANN For The Capital

Twenty-six years ago, Bobbie and Jerry Burnett sailed their 35-foot sloop into a protected cove in Severna Park and began house hunting in Annapolis.

Mrs. Burnett signed up for a course in stained glassmaking at the YMCA. Unknowingly, she had just embarked on a new career that would span decades, save lives and inspire doctors.

Her nonprofit organization, Caring Collection Inc., has raised more than half a million dollars for cancer research and equipment since 1982.

"My first angel was for a friend with leukemia," Mrs. Burnett said. "Everyone else brought her casseroles and cakes, but cooking is not my strong suit, so I decided to make her a stained glass angel."

Thus was born the "Susie," named for Bobbie's friend.

Soon, requests for the stained glass angels grew so much Mrs. Burnett recruited her friends to work in her studio.

And then inspiration struck. She would use the proceeds from the angel sales for cancer research and treatment.

"Angels symbolize hope, love and caring in every culture," she said. "This was the best way we could help."

Trained as a teacher at the State University of New York in New Paltz, she taught students from kindergarten through high school.

Before devoting herself to Caring Collection full time, she also taught a class at Anne Arundel Community College.

Her first trip to a wholesale glass dealer brings a smile at the memory.

"When I asked him to lend me the money to start, he thought I was crazy," she said "'You're going to do this nonprofit?' he said, just shaking his head." Now, an eighteen-wheeler tractor-trailer delivers stained glass to Mrs. Burnett's studio every year. Friends, neighbors and her husband help her unload.

At her Annapolis studio, the Caring Collection creates angels with new designs and colors every year.

"They always have similar wings, though, so you know they're a family," Mrs. Burnett said.

This year, lavender, blue and mauve are featured. Votive candles placed behind the small sculptures make them flicker delicately. Prices range from $35 to $65, and the cost is tax-deductible. One hundred percent of the sales goes for cancer research and treatment.

Mrs. Burnett makes line drawings of angel heads, wings, bodies, halos and bases. Volunteers transfer the drawings to glass and then carefully cut them out. Next, they begin foiling with copper, soldering, wet sanding and washing as they assemble the parts. Each angel is the product of many hours of work.

Once they are completed, Mr. Burnett oversees packing the sculptures into special boxes.

"We had zero breakage last year, and we shipped all over the world," he said.

Nearly 70 volunteers work in the studio throughout the year, and they also sell the angels from their homes.

Verna Galloway, of Severna Park, has held parties to sell the angels for the past three years.

"People love these angels and always want to come back next year to get one for someone else, or maybe for themselves," she said.

In addition to angels, the Caring Collection also makes and sells sun catchers in multiple designs. Volunteers present some of these to survivors of childhood cancers at Camp Sunrise.

"Many people don't realize that some forms of childhood leukemia are very curable," Mrs. Burnett said. "It is a joy to give the children a sun catcher to mark a year of survival."

Doctors at Johns Hopkins University Hospital use their portion of the money from the Caring Collection sales for cancer research.

At Anne Arundel Medical Center, the funds go directly to patient care, often in the form of special equipment used by oncologists.

"We know exactly where our money goes," Mrs. Burnett said.

The hospitals both submit the names of two or three candidates for funds to the Caring Collection. Volunteers then consider each application, and select the recipients.

"It is so gratifying to use our talent this way," Mrs. Burnett said. "Everyone is touched in some way by this awful disease. We all have had someone we love affected by cancer. This is a way to cope, to make a difference in people's lives, and each of our volunteers is doing just that."

Julie Mann is a freelance writer who lives in Severna Park.

Published November 23, 2003, The Capital, Annapolis, Md.
Copyright 2003 The Capital, Annapolis, Md.