Santa Clarita Girl Raises Money For Saugus Coach Fighting Cancer
When 10-year-old Brooklyn Hernandez learned that Saugus teacher and coach Scott Maxwell had been diagnosed with lymphoma, she quickly jumped into action and used her bracelet business, Brooklyn's Blessings, to raise money for him.
Battling cancer is something Brooklyn can relate to because when she was born, she had a cancerous tumor on her lung.
The condition led to Brooklyn's first surgery at Children's Hospital L.A. (CHLA) at six months old. Since then, Brooklyn has undergone nine surgeries and requires a gastrostomy tube (G-tube) in her stomach to deliver food and medicine.
Despite all that she has gone through, Brooklyn still finds the strength to encourage others and give back to the Santa Clarita community.
Brooklyn sold "Maxwell Bracelets" at the Saugus football homecoming game and Strawberry and Fig's Fall Boutique.
All together, Brooklyn has sold over 100 Maxwell Bracelets from the two events.
Not only is Brooklyn helping the family, but she has also raised money for others battling cancer, put on toy drives, and donated Play-Doh to CHLA around her birthday.
On top of that, Brooklyn's Blessings donates of all sales to the Children's Hospital.
Brooklyn said she gives the 20 percent so that CHLA can continue to save kids the same way they saved her.
"We've also been connecting with families who are going through medical turmoil," said Brooklyn's mother, Tiffany Hernandez. "We are actually working to raise money for Millie, a 10-year-old girl in Santa Clarita who has a brain tumor."
Brooklyn's Blessing also raised funds to buy Legos for a CHLA patient named Jake as he recovered from a kidney transplant in September.
All that Brooklyn's Blessing has done for many others began with Brooklyn's idea to sell bracelets over the summer so she could attend camps and is now being used to "spread God's love," as Brooklyn likes to say.
"We also have to believe that God saved [Brooklyn] and that she is here to spread His love in any sort of way she can," said Tiffany.
Through the nine surgeries and living with a single lung, doctors told the Hernandez family that Brooklyn would be lucky to live past 2 years old.
Hearing that Brooklyn's life expectancy would be limited hit the family hard. Brooklyn's older sister Hailey said that there were countless nights that she cried herself to sleep, thinking about everything her baby sister was going through.
"There were a lot of sleepless nights just questioning why [Brooklyn], why me, why us? What did this sweet, innocent girl do to deserve this," said Hailey. "I wanted a baby sister so bad, and hearing that she was going to be taken away from me was so hard."
Not knowing what was going to happen next the Hernandez family continued to put their faith in God and loved Brooklyn every chance they got by celebrating milestones like half birthdays and birthdays.
"We were just soaking up every moment that we had with her and it seemed like she was getting better and stronger at every appointment," said Hailey. "Doctors would just keep giving us a timeline, but it kept getting extended and then we realized she's going to overcome this. With all the help from the community, our church, other families we were close with, and God on our side, we had a lot of support."
Though Hailey is the older sister, she finds inspiration in Brooklyn's story of overcoming adversity to start Brooklyn's Blessing, playing soccer and practicing gymnastics.
"Even though Brooklyn is younger than me, she's a big role model for me," said Hailey. "She has overcome and powered through so much. All odds were against her and we had no idea what to expect. We were holding on to every moment that we could. Now we see how strong and healthy she is, and she has half the lungs that we do, yet she can do so much, and she doesn't let that stop her in any way."
As a symbol of her inspiration, Hailey got a tattoo of Brooklyn's single lung on her forearm.
"My sister is such an encouragement to me, and I look up to her so much," said Hailey.
As many find inspiration in Brooklyn, she simply wishes to keep sharing God's love while supporting Children's Hospital L.A. and the Santa Clarita community.
To view all the bracelets Brooklyn's Blessings has to offer, click
