Written by Krista Madsen
There's nothing like shopping local, especially when you have the ease of buying some special right from your laptop. Above is a vivid sampling of the brightest, most unique items we've found trolling around the great halls of Etsy.
Among the many vendors from Yorktown Heights, Scarsdale, Peekskill, Rye, Mamaroneck, Pleasantville, Croton, White Plains, Ossining, Port Chester, and Sleepy Hollow, comes one particularly special story and gift close to home:
Healing Hearts
Tarrytown's Katie Smercak made a painting of flowers when was five, and in chemotherapy for leukemia. Her family has created heart ornaments imprinted with that floral motif. They are selling these on Etsy for $10 a pop, all proceeds to go to Camp Sunshine in Maine, a camp for children with life threatening illnesses and their families, at no cost to the families.
Katie is now 15 and cancer-free. A survivor.
She writes, "Camp Sunshine is the place where we became happy and hopeful again. From the second my family arrives to the minute we leave we have smiles on our faces and never stop laughing and having a good time. It’s a place where you can talk about your problems but have fun and smile while doing so. You can take a deep breath and fall if you need to and know someone is always there to catch you."
Read more about Katie and her family's journey here.
Are you an Etsy artist from Westchester? Share a link to your shop in the comments.
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