Blanketing comfort

When Leslie Summer went browsing at garage sales last year, she never realized the connection she was about to forge.  She stopped at a garage sale and started chatting with the woman there.  She ended up talking with her for a couple of hours.  The women told Leslie about a little quilters circle in Elim Lutheran Church, located in Scandia.  The 17 quilters in the circle range in age from 78 to 97 years young.   As it turns out, they did not know who to give their handmade quilts to, and had a surplus beyond what their other charities could use.

Leslie, as a member of Knitters in General at General Mills, had helped deliver hundreds of handmade knitted clothing items and lap robes to HCMC in past years.  She responded that she knew just the place that could use them.  With that, Leslie had made the connection, and has coordinated 3 drop-offs since December, bringing us over 200 handmade quilts.  The 140 quilts just received represent the work of the quilters since February.

The quilts are distributed to Chaplains and Social Services to use to encourage and comfort patients and their families.  Both come back with wonderful stories of how the quilts helped patients or family members cope, met a need of someone without resources or became a treasured symbol of family together during someone’s last hours.  Often there is disbelief that someone unknown to them would reach out with such a wonderful and lovingly crafted symbol of caring.   One mother said she would treasure forever the quilt that was used keep to her adult daughter comfortable as she was dying.

Thank you to Elim Lutheran Church for their generosity and their caring efforts.  And thank you to Leslie for helping forge this wonderful connection!