4/7/08-6

Tuesday, 01 April 2008
Contestants brighten cancer patients' lives Print E-mail
Rette Speight - DAILY HERALD

Twenty-five colorful quilts made by the 2008 Little Miss Lindon contestants will brighten the lives, and rooms, of cancer patients being treated at the Jon Huntsman Cancer Center in American Fork.
Taylor Keene, 14, is participating in this year's Little Miss Lindon pageant as one of four queen's attendants after winning a place in the 2007 royalty party. During her reign, her mom, Maggie, died after a four-year battle with breast cancer.

While the royalty party met to decide the 2008 theme and group service project, they decided on the theme "Miracles Happen" and wanted to dedicate their service to honor Maggie. After talking to Taylor, the group decided to make quilts for other women being treated in the same facility, Jon Huntsman Cancer Center in American Fork, that Maggie attended.

"Taylor and her father said that she would have wanted to help other people the most," said Stephanie Jones, one of Maggie's close friends.

Taylor said the women in the center often get cold after chemotherapy treatments, and with the help of this year's pageant contestants, the girls were able to make 25 quilts to warm the patients at the center.

Karla Bird, whose daughter is competing in the pageant, said that it is really important to "show the girls that it's not all about glam" to compete in this pageant.

Several previous group service projects have benefited breast cancer patients since the founder of the pageant, Colleen McMillan, also died from breast cancer in 1994, said current pageant director Joy Nelson. In addition to raising money and making quilts, the girls have done other projects for the community such as making gingerbread houses to decorate the city hall, making Easter baskets for the Primary Children's Medical Center, planting trees, cleaning up Lindon's horse trail and many other projects.

The quilts were delivered on Monday, and Taylor said she was very excited to see the nurses and other patients who treated her with so much love while her mother was at the facility.

"They'd give us breakfast," Taylor said. "My mom was the patient, but they were always so nice to us, too."

When accompanying her mom to the facility for treatments, Taylor said that they'd talk about what they would do if they "got rich someday."

"She said that all she wanted was clean sheets every night," Taylor said. "I always thought that was so weird, why not a car? She said she was so happy, she didn't want anything else except clean sheets every night. So when she was really sick, my sisters and I would change her sheets for her."

After her reign as an attendant, Taylor will not be able to compete in the pageant anymore. Instead, she said she might get into acting or singing. The friendships made from the pageant, however, will always be close to her.

"These girls are freaking amazing," Taylor said. "They make even boring things so much fun, they'll always be my best friends."
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