Lafayette Author Honored to Help Girl’s Mission for Frontliners

Acadiana author, Alysson Bourque, noticed a 7-yar-old girl’s act of kindness that impacted the nation and reached out to her. Hayley Orlinsky said while her mom was watching the local news she overheard that doctors and nurses were running out of masks and PPE equipment for them to treat people with coronavirus. That is when she decided to help raise money for the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, where she had been a patient.

Hayley went up to her room and made friendship bracelets out of rubber bands. She told her mom that she wanted to sell them to raise money for the hospital, according to KATC.  Her mom said the project started off small and they never expected it to be how big it is today.

Originally, I thought it would keep her busy for a few hours or days, and we're going ten months. She's made over 9,000 bracelets. She's had help from the Girl Scouts, friends, and family. She's always looking at ways to up sell people so she can make more money for the hospital.  -Lori Orlinsky, Hayley's mom

Hayley’s goal was to sell $200 worth of bracelets and she has already raised over $24,000.

Lafayette native and Multi-award winning author Alysson Bourque, is the creator of The Alycat Series, which is a book series for children that teaches real-life lessons that all children can relate to and provides problem-solving skills. Bourque heard about Hayley’s efforts and donated ‘Alycat’ charms to Hayley so she could add them to her bracelets. The Alycat Charms are part of The Alycat Series.

Bourque shared how proud she is of Hayley on her personal Facebook page and said how honored she was to be a part of Hayley's mission and linked the KATC story.

Now there is a little bit of Acadiana is with every friendship bracelet that she creates, thanks to our local author, Alysson Bourque.

As young as she is...she is an inspiration to adults and children. You can do anything you can put your mind to. We discount what children can do. If we just listen to their ideas they can rule the world. – Alysson Bourque

Hayley's mom, Lori shared her excitement on a Facebook post about their appearance on Good Morning America and thanking everyone for all their sweet comments.

Merry Christmas to Hayley and her family! What a beautiful act of kindness.