Sisters aim to make you smile with friendship bracelets

TWO sisters from Henley made more than 60 friendship bracelets for people to find in the town. 

Willow and Cherry Gosby-Dolby spent three days making bracelets from their home in Crisp Road to spread positivity to visitors and residents in Henley.

They were inspired to give out bracelets after Willow, 11, was bullied at her primary school and they wanted to do something to help others.

Willow and Cherry placed the bracelets in freezer bags and taped them to lampposts in the town centre for people to find during the bank holiday weekend, helped by their parents Andrew and Rosie. 

They also placed their bracelets on benches along Thame Side, in Bell Street, Henley Football Club, the parks and in Market Place.

Each bracelet is accompanied by a note which says: “If I make you smile, keep me, or give me to someone else who will love it. If not, leave me for the next person to find.” Willow, who will start in year 7 at Gillotts School next week, said: “We made positive words like ‘smile’ and ‘love’ and we put them all around the town. Putting them around town made me feel happy. If it makes me happy, I’m sure it will make other people happy.

“I wake up generally early in the morning and as soon as I come downstairs I start making them. We then put them out around the town. The other day, when we came back, a lot of them had gone.”

Cherry, seven, who attends Badgemore Primary School, said: “I wanted to do them to make people smile and happy. One of the bracelets I made was a jungle bracelet.  I used dark brown and light blue and another light blue and a light green and a light pink. My favourite place to put the bracelets was at the park.”

The idea for a bracelet came from their friend Orla Coombs, who had made them one. They were then helped by another friend Amelia Thirlway, 10, from Henley, and they hope to continue making the bracelets when they go back to school. Willow said: “We went to put some more out with our friend and when we were going back home, we saw a little girl wearing our bracelets. When we went to our cousin’s party, we hid some there and we found quite a few adults wanted them.

“My mum showed me earlier that a guy found my bracelet and was wearing one that I’d made.

“It makes me feel happy. I’m feeling amazed, really. The first day we put them out, we were just about to head back to see if any of them had been moved and it turns out the first one that went was a little bunny one which said “hop hop”. My favourite thing about this is making other people happy.

Their parents have set up a Facebook page called Cherry & Willow’s Positive Path where they post daily updates on the girls’ creations.  Mr Gosby, a firefighter for Henley Fire Station, said: “It’s mainly been their idea. I’ve helped with a few little things like tying the bracelets and helping to spell a word, or coming up with a word when they’re trying to explain it. More than 100 people have liked the page and commented saying how amazing the girls are and what a great idea it is so I’m really proud of them.”

Mrs Gosby-Dolby, a nail technician, said: “The girls wanted to get some of the beads themselves and they started making them for their friends, too. 

“They then decided that they wanted to give them out to people. Obviously, I didn’t want them handing them out to strangers, so I said about writing a note and then putting them around town for people to find and they agreed.  They started on Thursday, handed them out on Friday and then Saturday they made some more and then handed them out on Sunday.

“Willow had mentioned that after going through a tough time being bullied at school, it would have been nice to find one of these to make her day and smile. After we ordered some beads off Amazon from their pocket money, they became hooked on making them.”