Web sites like YouTube have become popular because of their funny videos, but a freshman on campus was moved to take action after seeing one particular YouTube video about a four-year-old girl named Taylor Love.

Stefanie Carbone, a freshman elementary education major from Park Ridge, was inspired by a video made by 12-year-old Abby Miller in July 2009.

In the video Miller, from Ashburn, Va., sings a song by Avril Lavigne telling her young neighbor to “keep holding on.”

“I’ve always wanted help little kids, and that’s why I want to be a teacher, but when I saw Taylor Love’s YouTube video I knew I had to act,” said Carbone.

Love has been battling stage four neuroblastoma since she was 18 months old. Neuroblastoma is a cancer that begins in the nerve tissues of infants and very young children, according the Web site for Comer’s Hospital at the University of Chicago.

Only 650 children are diagnosed with neuroblastoma in the United States each year, and of those 650 children, 70 percent of them will relapse.

Carbone wanted Love to be the first child she helped. Carbone decided to start making barrettes with beads that the purchaser could personalize.

“I wanted to raise at least $1,000,” Carbone said.

It costs $3 for one and $5 for two. Since starting ‘Barrettes for Taylor’ in February, Carbone has raised more than $200, which she plans on sending to Love.

To donate to money to Taylor Love, you can visit taylorlove.org, and to buy barrettes from Stefanie, e-mail her at sjcarbone@eiu.edu.

Nike Ogunbodede can be reached at 581-7942 or

at ovogunbodede@eiu.edu.

Brittany Beauregard, a sophomore pre-nursing major, and Ryne Turke, a mass communication major, race in a bungy run Thursday afternoon in the Library Quad during Last Blast, an event put on by the University Board. (Megan Mathy / The Daily Eastern News)

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