'LillyPops' -- A Suffield Teen's Efforts to Beat Epilepsy

Contributed article.

A West Suffield teenager who has epilepsy hopes her sweet treats will help others with the neurological disorder by raising money to help find a cure.

Lilly Hoyt, 13, a seventh-grader at Suffield Middle School, has created “LillyPops,” the “Sweetest Way to Help Lick Epilepsy.”

Lilly is working with her teachers, classmates and paraprofessional team to make and sell lollipops. She is selling them to raise money for the Epilepsy Foundation of Connecticut, which is based in Middletown. Proceeds will also help benefit the Epilepsy Foundation and Epilepsy Therapy Project on the national level.

According to her parents, Geoffrey and Barbara Hoyt, Lilly had a tonic clonic (formerly known as grand mal) seizure when she was just 4-months-old, and she has had intractable absence (formerly called petit mal) seizures since she was two-years-old.

Lilly’s seizures have been dramatically reduced by medicine, yet the side effects from the medicines, along with the seizures, have presented Lilly with substantial challenges, including developmental delays, and heartbreaking missed social opportunities fueled by ignorance and stigma, according to her father.

“Her condition has a silver lining - it has made her will and determination stronger than an ox, and her true friends, teachers, paraprofessionals and family know this about Lilly, whom we refer to as our ‘angel warrior,’ who dares to defy her condition with immense courage and resolve,” Geoffrey Hoyt said.

LillyPops was her father’s idea, but he credits Lilly’s mother and teachers with making it a reality.
LillyPops come in a variety of shapes, colors and flavors. Lilly makes them shaped like hearts, clovers, diamonds, circles, squares, Mickey Mouse and more.

They come in root beer, grape, cinnamon, apple, orange, watermelon, lemon and blue raspberry flavors.
In the 2013-14 school year, LillyPops generated nearly $1,000 in sales, thanks to the many generous classmates, teachers and families that have purchased them. Lilly, with assistance from family members, helps make them all from scratch, boiling the ingredients, pouring them into molds, inserting sticks, letting them cool and harden, and finally wrapping them with specially made “LillyPops” tags.

According to Mr. Hoyt, it is the family’s long range goal to increase the sales and expand the operation, but for now, Lilly is hosting sales at school and local events.

“Our hopes for this project are to see Lilly develop an ever expanding sense of confidence, while increasing awareness of epilepsy, teaching kids, parents and teachers about this terrible neurological condition that impacts more than 60,000 Connecticut residents and 2 million people across the United States,” Geoffrey Hoyt said. “We are determined to show people that epilepsy is not some sort of communicable disease to be feared and that children and adults who endure life with this affliction with untold daily courage, are just like everyone else - and they deserve equal treatment, respect, true kindness and compassion, and friendship.”

Linda Wallace, executive director of the Epilepsy Foundation of Connecticut, said , “We are proud of Lilly and grateful for her effort to build awareness and raise money to help find a cure for epilepsy.”

For more information, visit the foundation’s web site, at https://www.epilepsyct.com/
See the section on LillyPops here: https://www.epilepsyct.com/lillypops.php

Contributed photo of Lily Hoyt.