Teen helps cancer patients.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)(Heavenly Hats)

Six years ago, when Anthony Leanna of Suamico, Wisconsin, was eight years old, his grandmother, Darlene Chartier, was hospitalized with cancer. On many occasions while visiting his grandmother at the hospital where she was being treated, Anthony met other cancer patients, including children. "He saw all the children that had lost their hair to cancer treatment and couldn't get them out of his mind," Mrs. Chartier wrote in a letter to the Good Morning America program. "He desperately wanted to do something for all of them."

Anthony's inspiration was to raise money to purchase and distribute hats to the patients free of charge. "I wanted to do something. I wanted to have hats that they could pick out and wear," Anthony told the Green Bay Press-Gazette.

He started by contacting potential donors by e-mail and creating flyers to make his community aware of his project. He convinced local business owners to allow him to place collection boxes in their stores. When he had accumulated enough money to get started, he began contacting companies that sold and manufactured hats, to get their input. Wisconsin-based S.C. Johnson Company supplied custom-designed plastic bags to keep the hats clean and dry during delivery.

Anthony called his project Heavenly Hats. Once word got around his part of Wisconsin, donations started coming in. He bagged and distributed the hats himself, and still does. A major supporter has been the National Football League, which has supplied Anthony with large quantities of Green Bay Packer hats--understandably a popular item in northeastern Wisconsin!

In 2003, Anthony was inducted into the Hall of Fame for Caring Americans by the Caring Institute, which gives the honor annually to the most caring individuals in the nation. That year, he also received the presidential ...