Community Service

2011 Monthly Charity Committee Reports

December Charity Committee Report by Ssandra Ferguson

On December 6, Alice Vreeland, Linda Rodgers and Sandra Ferguson took a number of things to Rocky Mount. We had a great time, and a good lunch after the delivery.

The following were delivered: Franklin County Hospital emergency room--20 pillow pals, Franklin County Hospice--3 lap quilts, Women's shelter--3 knit caps, 6 prs. mittens, 4 totes, 8 pillow cases, 5 pillow pals, and 6 quilts; Social Services (Foster Care) 6 totes, 4 quilts, 13 pillow cases, and 4 pillow pals, CASA--7 pillow pals, Franklin Healthcare--6 wheelchair bags, 6 small totes, 2 throws.

Our inventory is lower right now than it has been in a long time. We have zero bears, pillow pals, totes, mittens, hats, sweaters, wheelchair bags, and Christmas stockings. The Healthcare center wants wheelchair bags, the hospital is always in need of bears and pillow pals, and we had no bears to take to the sheriff's office this time. We will need a lot of bears sewn for our charity sew-in in February. There are dozens of pillow pal kits available, but they need to be put together. Katherine Lewis took 108 Christmas stockings to STEP and asks that guild members use up that leftover Christmas fabric to make more for next year. We will need over 100 next year this time.

November Charity Committee Report by Marlyn Curnow

First of all – thank you to all for your generous donations. We have been getting lots of inventory at every meeting. Your generosity is greatly appreciated by all. If any of you have need for fabric or yarn, please let me know.

Trinity Mission has requested Wheel Chair Bags – if you have any made – please bring them to the November meeting. We will be doing a Franklin County Delivery in early December which will deplete out inventory of most items. Please continue to bring your wonderful donations – OUR CHARITIES NEED US.

Intake for September: Bears 3, Large Pillow Cases 15, Travel Size Pillow Cases 5, Baby Quilts 7, Stocking Hats 3, Mittens 6, Lap Quilts 2, Pillow Pals 2, Large Quilts 2, Tote Bags 10.

Intake for October: Travel Size Pillow and Cases 4, Bears 2, Pillow Pals 5, Christmas Stockings 4, Mittens 4, Knitted Sweater 1, Little Hats 4, Large Hats 2, Lap Quilts 6, Large Quilt 1, Pillow Cases 3.

Bedford County Delivery:
Karen Arends, Sandy Kelso, and Marcia Wright. Thank you ladies for stepping up to the plate. Your help is greatly appreciated.

Social Services: 7 Pillow Cases, 8 Lap Quilts, 1 Twin Quilt, 10 Pillow Pals, 10 Bears, 6 Hats, 25 Mittens, 1 Sweater.
Domestic Violence Center: 3 Bed Quilts, 2 Lap Quilts, 1 Crib Quilt, 5 Pillow Pals, 2 Sets Mittens & Hats, 3 tote bags.
Hospital Emergency Room: 18 Bears, 12 pillow Pals, 4 Baby Hats.
Hospice: 2 Afghans, 2 Bed Quilts, 3 Lap Quilts, 2 Travel Size Pillow and Cases.
Nursing Home: 2 Afghans, 4 wheel Chair Bags, 3 Lap Quilts, 1 Bib.

WE NEED MORE CHRISTMAS STOCKINGS. IF YOU HAVE ANY OR CAN MAKE SOME BEFORE THE MEETING, PLEASE BRING THEM. THANKS FOR ALL OF YOUR HELP.

 
September Charity Committee Report by Marlyn Curnow

We have so many things going on that I thought we needed a review of the projects:

Small Pillow Cases - Pattern available on Website and directions in last months Newsletter. Hospice Care in Rocky Mount has made this request.
Large Pillow Cases - Pattern Available on Website. We have a need for these once again. We will be donating some of these to the Rescue Mission Ministries in Roanoke. Dot Jackson will be distributing these. We have also been asked to help Stepping Stone Mission in Rocky Mount, Lori Suon will be distributing these pillowcases. With adding these two new Missions to our charitable giving we can have lots of pillow cases and they can still be counted - I will submit the numbers to allpeoplequilt.com web site if that is what all of you want. We can still make the pillow cases even if we don't add them to the count.
Of course the regular on going "things" as follows: Quilts of all sizes, Bears, and Pillow Pals.

We also have some ladies who make Mittens and Hats, Christmas Stockings, Tote Bags, Wheelchair Bags, and Walker bags.
At the last meeting we had 36 Pillow Pals, 5 Bears, 2 Tote Bags, 8 Lap or Child size quilts, 4 Twin size quilts with Pillow Cases, and 11 Large Lap quilts. Thank you ladies for your generosity.
Last but not least - the Charity Bee Workshop held at Smith Mountain Lake Quilting. This will again be the 4th Wednesday of each month. We will be resuming this activity on October 26th at 12 noon. Karen Arends will be introducing our new project at this get together. We are looking forward to seeing any and all who can participate. We will have a sign up sheet at the September meeting, but you can come whether or not you have been to the meeting to sign up.

August Charity Committee Report by Marlyn Curnow

Thanks to all who have made donations to our Charity Bee “stash” of completed projects. We make deliveries to Franklin and Bedford Counties a minimum of twice a year. All of your efforts make that possible for us to do. If any of you find someone in need of any of our items, please let us know.

We have a new project! When we visited Hospice they expressed a need for “travel” size pillows and pillow cases. The travel pillow is 12” x 16”. I think a pillow case that is 14” x 18”’ would be a perfect size. Hope to see some of these small pillow cases show up soon.

On July 25th Sandra Ferguson, Marcia Wright and Marlyn delivered the following items to Franklin County locations:

Rocky Mount Hospital: 10 pillow pals and 10 bears
Family Resource Center: 15 pillowcases, 4 quilts, 5 bears and 4 tote bags
Social Services: 4 quilts w/coordinating cases, 20 pillowcases, 6 bears
Hospice: 2 quilts
CASA (Child Advocacy): 4 pillow pals and 6 bears

Monthly Charity Bee Workshops: We will be resuming this activity in September. Put the 4th Wednesday of each month on your calendar so you don’t miss out on the fun we share at these gatherings. Bring your sewing machine and ideas to share for future projects. We meet at SML Quilting. Call Marlyn or Karen Arends if you have any questions.

For those interested in quilts for Japanese survivors of the earthquake/tsunami: http://www.quiltsforjapan.ca/who-we-are.

June Charity Committee Report by Marlyn Curnow

In early May Barbara Lees delivered the following items:

Bedford Social Services: 20 pillowcases and 10 quilts
Bedford Hospital: 26 pillowcases and 10 bears
Bedford Nursing Home: 2 bibs and 6 wheelchair bags
Bedford Domestic Violence Center: 5 bears and 5 pillow pals

May Intake: 4 bears, 1 pillowcase, 1stocking, 6 quilts, 5 pillow pals. Thanks to all of you for your donations.

Charity Bee Monthly Gathering - May 24th: We met at Smith Mountain Lake Quilting from 12 noon to 5 pm. We have completed 3 of the raggedy quilts with 2 more nearly done. For our next project we will be using one of the “kits” that we had. Karen will be presenting us with a plan of what quilt pattern to make. Bette Gove, Karen Arends and Marlyn Curnow were in attendance. We got one whole quilt stitched. Thank you for your participation.

May Charity Committee Report by Marlyn Curnow

On March 14, Marcia Wright, Barbara Lees, and Sandra Ferguson delivered the following to Franklin County:

Social Services (Foster Care) - 5 quilts, 10 bears, 25 pillowcases
Family Resource (Shelter) - 5 totes, 20 pillowcases, 5 pillow pals, 6 quilts
CASA (Child Advocacy) - 10 pillowcases, 5 bears
Sheriff’s Department - 10 bears
Hospital ER - 20 bears, 10 pillow pals
Hospice - 4 quilts
Franklin Healthcare -3 totes, 6 wheelchair bags, 5 quilts

April Intake: 1 bear, 6 wheel chair bags, 19 pillowcases, 2 stockings, 2 child-size quilts, 4 adult-size quilts, and 8 pillow pals.

Charity Bee Monthly Gathering - April 27th: We will continue to meet at Smith Mountain Lake Quilting from 12 noon to 5 pm. You can stay the whole time or any part of it. The more hands, the merrier. As our group grows, we will be able to meet in one of the empty store fronts (it has tables and chairs) at ground level by the “Big Chicken”. Thanks to Carolyn Fields, Mary Ann Spangler, Jean Hutson, Donna Broomall, who joined Marlyn and Karen Arends. Plan to come May 25 to help complete 2 more raggedy quilts….then see what Karen has in store for us next. Thank you to the Hardy Bee for helping with the raggedy quilts at their monthly gathering.

April Charity Committee Report:

Charity Bee Monthly Gathering – Karen Arends & Marlyn Curnow: We had a very successful debut of our updated Charity Bee Monthly Gathering. A big thank you to the following people who attended: Carolyn Fields, Teena Livsey, Irene Capps, Kate Holdgreve, Bernice Alcorn. Karen and I were there to answer any questions and work along with the group. We have two lap size Raggedy quilts ready to snip and wash. The team work was wonderful with people cutting fabric, others layering and the sewers. We will be looking at a location that will hold at least 15 so more people can participate – hopefully on a regular basis.Sign up for this month. Please call Karen or Marlyn to sign up for this month’s gathering. April 27 time to be announced at the April guild meeting.

April Intake: Bears 6; Pillow Pals 17; Lap quilts 13; Knit Mittens 6; Knit caps 2; Pillow Cases 4. Thanks to everyone who contributed.

March Charity Committee Report: (From Sandra Ferguson) We had a great Charity Workday in February. Thanks to everyone who came, sewed, stuffed bears, and made kits. We finished 95 bears and 41 pillowcases. About 130 kits were put together for Pillow Pals!

We collected 10 bears, 1 Pillow Pal, 4 lap quilts, 6 wheelchair bags, 1 tote, 8 pr. mittens, 2 caps, and 15 pillowcases in addition to those that we worked on at the meeting. Keep all these things coming in. We can use everything. Please consider making a twin size quilt. It would be nice to have a matching pillowcase to go along with it. Our shelters and foster care agencies have all expressed a need for these.

Cindy Treadway from the Franklin County Resource Center spoke to us about her program and the needs of the center. She took 10 Pillow Pals, 8 bears, 3 quilts and 30 Pillowcases. (From Marcia Wright: Cindy Treadway visited our work day in February and took a bunch of pictures. She put them on the shelter website. Do check out this site: franklincountyva.org/shelter ...go to "Pillow Pals project." If you go to "Project Cover Me" you will see beds with bears on them!)

We are off to a great start for our Charity Bee Work Day. Marnie has graciously donated the use of her work space at the shop. We have nine people who have signed up for March. Karen Arends and Marlyn Curnow will be there to help all of you. Ten is the maximum number that we can have at one time. If you missed signing up this time, you will have a chance to sign up for the April work day.

This month, we will be meeting March 23 from 12-3. (Marnie's shop doesn't open until 12 on Wednesdays.) Those participating should grab a bite to eat before they come since we won't take time out to eat lunch. You will need your regular sewing supplies and your sewing machine. If you have the scissors that are recommended for snipping raggy quilts please bring them.We will be making the Raggy Quilts out of Homespun fabric that has been donated to us for this project. The blocks will be 6” and batting 5”. If you have batting that could be donated please bring it cut into 5” squares. Marlyn will bring the Homespun with enough cut to get us started. If you have any questions or find that you are unable to attend, please call Karen Arends or Marlyn Curnow.

January Charity Committee Report: (From Sandra Ferguson) We are preparing for our sew-in at the February meeting. We will sew pillowcases and work on bears and pillow pals. This year we will focus on quilts, pillowcases, bears and pillow pals, although all the other items are always welcome. Please think about making twin sized quilts for teens. It would be nice to include a matching or coordinating pillow case for your quilt.

This month we collected 7 bears, 9 pillow pals, 5 quilts, 2 bibs, 11 Christmas stockings, 12 tote bags, 10 pillow cases, and 6 gorgeous crocheted afghans. Marnie Brush also brought 96 pillow cases that had been turned in at her store. Thanks to all who contributed.

We have a wonderful donation of bolts of fabric for us to use for our projects, so for this year, no longer will be taking donated fabric. We would like to propose that a recycle table be set up in another part of the room where members could donate and pick up magazines, kits, and fabric, if you'd still like access to these things. Is there someone out there who would coordinate this activity?