Left to right: Benilde-St. Margaret’s students Annika Olson and Katie Berthoud drop off care packages full of art supplies, stuffed animals and needed items to Children’s Minnesota Hospital-Minneapolis. Photo: Caring for the Courageous
Teen cancer survivor turns personal experience into hope.
Edina resident Annika Olson is using her own harrowing health experience—being diagnosed with cancer as a high school freshman—to make life brighter for other sick kids. Annika, a senior at Benilde-St. Margaret’s (BSM) in St. Louis Park, is now cancer-free, but she says the long days of anxiety and isolation during her treatment were difficult. “During that time period, I was at home, and my friends would come to visit me. It was the only way I could see them, since I wasn’t able to go to school,” she says. Her best friend and fellow BSM senior, Katie Berthoud, helped organize visitors and often brought gift bags, filled with comforting items like blankets, stuffed animals and art supplies. “It wasn’t even the stuff itself,” Annika says. “But just knowing that I had people around me who cared. That was really helpful.”
After a year or so, when her cancer was in remission, Annika couldn’t shake what she calls “survivor’s guilt.”
“I was struggling a little bit and wanted to give back to kids who were in the same situation I had been,” she says. She reached out to one of the coordinators at M Health Fairview Masonic Children’s Hospital, where she’d been treated, to see if she could put together some care package bags for patients. The answer was, “Yes!”
Soon, it was time to expand her vision and get others involved. Annika and Katie officially launched their BSM club, Caring for the Courageous, in May 2023. The club organizes fundraisers and creates and delivers gift bags for children hospitalized in the Twin Cities. And the mission is personal for both young women. In addition to walking alongside her best friend during her cancer treatment, Katie also shares a connection to the Ronald McDonald House. Her parents and brother lived there while he was coping with health problems as an infant. Caring for the Courageous now counts the Ronald McDonald House among its local beneficiaries.
In just over a year, Annika and Katie have grown the club to more than 225 members. Annika is president and Katie serves as vice president and manages social media. They hold fundraisers a few times a year at local stores like Kowalski’s Markets, Jerry’s Foods and Lunds & Byerlys.
When it’s time to put together gift bags, Annika says club members reach out to their beneficiaries to find out what their current patients need. The club then orders gift items, like stuffed animals, fidgets and craft supplies, and meets as a large group to assemble the bags. They often craft handmade fleece tie blankets to add to their care packages.
As they look ahead to graduation, Katie plans to study marketing and business. And Annika? “After my cancer experience, I’m going to do premed,” she says.
Join the Cause
Benilde-St. Margaret’s Caring for the Courageous club will carry out groceries for customers and assist in the store. All money raised will go directly toward gift bags for kids in pediatric hospitals around the Twin Cities.
Caring for the Courageous Holiday Fundraiser; Noon-4 p.m. November 23. Kowalski’s Markets, 324 Southdale Center.
To learn more about Caring for the Courageous or to make a donation to the club, visit bsmschool.org.
Caring for the Courageous at Benilde-St. Margaret’s
2501 MN-100, St. Louis Park; 952.927.4176
Facebook: Benilde-St. Margaret’s
Instagram: @caringforthecourageous
