Helping Cari Fly like a Butterfly

Kasey Edwards believes the smallest acts of kindness can make the biggest impact. During the height of the COVID-19 crisis in Washington, D.C., she and her daughter Kori made and donated 50 cloth masks to Children’s National Hospital in honor Kasey’s late daughter Cari. She passed away in 2016 at 17 years old after complications from severe asthma.

“To know that our masks might help a family member visit the child they love and stay safe means a lot,” Kasey says. They hope to make 100 more.

Our staff treated Cari for her asthma from the time she was 2. “From our first month-long hospitalization to the moment when Cari took her last breath, Children’s National was an overwhelmingly comforting place,” Kasey recalls. “Everyone from janitorial staff to the chief of surgery focused on making children feel better.”

The blue butterflies on the hand-made masks symbolize Cari’s love of life. “Children’s National gave us a gift,” Kasey says. “They always had a game plan. Everything there focused on returning her from being a sick kid to being a kid who could do everything she loved from riding horses to traveling the world.”