"LOVE LETTERS" BRING HOPE TO FAMILIES HIT BY CHILDREN'S ILLNESS

THEN, DECEMBER 1997: An "instant" Christmas was being delivered to a group of cancer-stricken families during the holiday season to remind them that someone, somewhere cared.

The Christmas-in-a-box packages - containing everything needed for a celebration meal, right down to the napkins - were going to American homes where a child was fighting the life-threatening disease.

The goodwill mailing had been organized by Love Letters, a small volunteer group trying to keep parents' and children's hopes up by corresponding three times every week with greetings, personal news, cards and good wishes.

Families in four States were due to receive the Christmas-in-a-box deliveries, packed and dispatched from the Love Letters office in Gresham, Oregon where founder Kym Gillis said: "When a child is really sick there often simply isn't the time or energy to think about anything else, so we want to take the pressure of Christmas off them."

A former nurse who joined YWAM nine years previously, Gillis had worked with troubled street youth until ill-health sidelined her. She turned her attention to needy children, spending up to six hours a day writing and organizing mail, assisted by volunteers from a local church.

NOW: A feature article in top-selling Good Housekeeping magazine prompted a response from several readers claiming they had come up with the Love Letters idea first, but also calls from all over the country to Gillis - whose check before naming her program to see if there were any similar projects had drawn a blank - from people wanting to start the same kind of service in their area.

Parties-in-a-box have been added to the mix, with themed packages - from dinosaurs and trucks to Winnie the Pooh - providing everything a family needs for a celebration. The box even includes invitations with stamps and a disposable camera. "Often they arrive at a time just when the child is particularly needy, and it is a great encouragement to them."

Happily several children have been "graduated" from the program as their cancer has gone into remission, but several others have died. "It was hard, because they had been with us since the beginning," said Gillis. Love Letters correspondence continues after the child's death, though.

"We keep in touch with the parents and any siblings. We call or write and send cards to them to say that we were not just concerned about the child that died but that we care about them, too."

Gillis has faced her own renewed health struggles in recent months, being hospitalized with complications following surgery. She has drawn strength and encouragement from "my kids. I always think about what they have had to go through, and that if they can do it, then so can I."

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