Blanketing children with care and color

By Gloria A. Hoffner

Inquirer Suburban Staff

WARMINSTER - Donna Laing was unloading brightly colored blankets, afghans and quilts from her car when a curious 9-year-old boy approached.

Laing, a coordinator with Project Linus, a charity that gives quilts and blankets to seriously ill and traumatized children, was setting out the blankets as gifts for children with disabilities enrolled at the Variety Club Camp and Development Center in Worcester. While she worked, the boy stood nearby.

"I said, 'What color would you like? Do you like green or orange?' He said, 'I'd like a soft one,' " Laing recalled. "I pulled out a few more and asked him again, did he have a favorite color? He said, 'Just a soft one.'

"Then I realized I was asking a blind person what color he liked. The boy was so patient with me... . It's a blessing to be part of this organization."

Project Linus is an all-volunteer, nonprofit national organization, with chapters serving Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery Counties and Philadelphia. Laing, of Warminster, and co-coordinator Janet Geissler of Philadelphia head the Philadelphia chapter, which includes parts of Montgomery and Bucks Counties.

Their chapter donates about 1,000 items each year to local hospitals, foster-care agencies, and homeless shelters. Variety Club is one of the local sites, said Jennifer Tanzola, program director.

"The children love to receive the blankets because it makes them realize that someone, outside of their families, really cares about them," Tanzola said.

Laing and Geissler recruited 40 Project Linus volunteers from their workplace as well as many others from churches, synagogues, nursing homes and youth groups, along with friends and neighbors. They collect and share yarn donations and expand the membership by teaching handcraft skills to new volunteers.

"You hear the stories, see the photos of the kids, and you are hooked," Laing said.

"People say, 'I don't have time,' and I say, 'You never sit down at all?' Then I show them the afghan I made by crocheting every night during the 30-minute newscast."

Residents of Normandy Farms Estates, a retirement community in Blue Bell, have donated more than 732 items since August 2001, said Sandy Stiegler, director of residential services for Normandy Farms.

"It is a woman-to-child connection," Stiegler said. "This is our outreach to the community."

Peggy Kane of Glenmoore is the coordinator for the Chester/Delaware chapter, which distributes about 1,000 blankets each year to area hospitals and Camp Dreamcatcher, a Chester County facility that serves children affected by HIV/AIDS.

"I think this program helps two groups of people. It helps the children who get the blankets, gives them a sense of security... . Sometimes the hospitals drape the blankets over the beds so the children have a splash of color in their rooms," Kane said.

"The people who make the blankets get a tremendous sense of doing good for the community."

Kane has been with Project Linus for five years and has about 200 members in her chapter. She welcomes contributors of all ages and supplies new volunteers with a packet of information.

"You don't have to make 10 blankets a year," Kane said. "If you make one and it takes you all year, that is fine. Do what you can do. Everything is appreciated."

The warmth, security and love expressed by a handmade item are universal, Geissler said.

"Project Linus is like ripples in a pond. The person who makes an item or donates yarn usually doesn't get to see the effects, but sometimes," said Geissler, who told of a recent e-mail from a mother whose daughter was born with cataracts in both eyes.

When the mother visited the hospital, she found her baby wrapped securely in a delicate, handmade afghan.

"The mother wrote, 'When my daughter is older, I am going to tell her about the wonderful people who made the blanket,' " Geissler said, tears filling her eyes.

"It's the best feeling in the world."

Contact suburban staff writer Gloria A. Hoffner at 610-313-8006 or gloriah@phillynews.com.

 

People

Project Linus welcomes donations of blankets of all sizes and styles, including quilts, comforters, fleece blankets, crocheted or knitted afghans, and receiving blankets in child-friendly colors. Blankets must be new, handmade and washable.

 Reprinted with permission from the Philadelphia Inquirer.