A small token makes a big difference for thousands who spend their holidays in the hospital


    GRAYSLAKE – College of Lake County student Elizabeth Elliott knows what it’s like to spend time in the hospital. Ten years ago, she began unexpectedly passing out. Her doctors identified the cause as extremely high blood pressure but have been unable to cure her. 

    “I’ve got to keep going. I do iron transfusions frequently, blood tests all the time, heart tests all the time, my full range of doctors,” Elliott said in a news release. “Physically I still have my challenges. I can’t drive and taking the bus, even an [Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant] bus, it’s very risky.” 

    She doesn’t let any of that stop her from living life. Shortly after being diagnosed in 2010 while living in Florida, she returned home to Grayslake and enrolled at CLC. 

    “I’ve always attributed CLC to pretty much saving my life,” Elliott said. “I couldn’t drive, and I was in and out of the hospital every week. I just felt like I had lost everything, so going to school was kind of my normalcy. Being around people, getting my brain functioning rather than just lying in bed and being sick.” 

    Professors such as Nancy Cook noticed her enthusiasm and the challenges she constantly overcame that were possible thanks in part to the assistance from CLC’s office for students with disabilities.

    “She would call or text me after a seizure, multiple hospitalizations and infusion sessions explaining her situation,” Cook said. “I frankly do not know how she keeps smiling while also doing more than her share of the work. I have the utmost respect and admiration for Elizabeth.” 

    That admiration only grows when Cook talks about Elliott’s annual project. Twelve years ago, Elliott started HOPE Ornaments, a nonprofit dedicated to providing an ornament to those in a hospital or assisted living facility during the holidays. Elliott was inspired after giving an ornament to a 6-year-old girl battling leukemia in the hospital Christmas Eve, 2007.

    This year, however, will be unlike any she’s ever experienced. 

    “It’s hard enough being in a hospital even when you can have visitors, but this year, they can’t have visitors,” Elliott said. “I can’t imagine waking up Christmas morning and having no one by my side. It breaks my heart to think there’s going to be 60,000 some people in Illinois who are going to have to experience that.”

    That estimate of people in the hospital over the holidays is about three times higher than a normal year. What’s worse, on average Elliott collects 8,000 ornaments, but this year only about 2,000 have been donated. Still, it’s a better situation than she expected. 

    “I was worried that HOPE Ornaments was not going to take place this year, but the hospitals reached out to me,” Elliott said. “They’ve seen in the past what a difference it makes in people’s lives and so they really wanted the ornaments.” 

    Elliott hopes to collect 5,000 ornaments this year, which she has to deliver to the 26 hospitals and assisted living facilities she serves by Dec. 15 so they can go through their own quarantine.

    She is specifically asking for unopened, purchased ornaments as a health precaution, or a monetary donation so she can purchase the ornaments. See some of what she’s collected so far and learn how to donate by visiting her Facebook page.  





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