By CAROLINE CARMICHAEL/ Staff Writer

Childhood Cancer Awareness Month is rolling in with the approach of September, and from Aug. 28 to Sept. 22, the Relay Queens from the Relay For Life Pageant will be collecting pajamas for children who are patients at Children’s Hospital.

“Two years ago, we did wagons,” Sunny Mays of Relay For Life said.

This year the Relay Queens wanted to do something different, but sure to be needed.

Mays learned of pajama collections in other locations across the nation, and confirmed with a Children’s Hospital representative that pajama donations would be greatly appreciated.

“She said, ‘It is better for them to be in pajamas than in these (hospital) gowns,’” Mays said.

According to the representative, in the haste of bringing a child to the hospital, parents often forget to pack extra clothes for their child. Having pajamas available at the hospital would save a trip for parents while keeping their child more comfortable during his or her stay.

“Instead of looking on the sad side of childhood cancer, we want to do something good,” Mays said. “Any cancer is bad, but for children it’s really bad. Their lives are taken away from their fun and their games, and they have to be in the hospital — so we’re just trying to brighten it up a little bit.”

Donations can be made by submitting purchased pajamas in infant and children’s sizes to Relay Queen drop-off locations, or by donating funds to Relay Queens for their purchases of pajamas for the cause.

Relay Queen drop-off locations include:

• Moore’s Insurance at 606 2^ndAvenue North in Clanton
• Glitz & Gowns at 8919 Highway 119 in Alabaster

Mays said for donors who drop off pajamas at Glitz & Gowns, which sponsors gowns for the Relay For Life Pageant, the shop will offer $25 off their next Glitz & Gowns purchase.

Relay Queens will deliver the pajamas to Children’s Hospital at the end of September.