Pillowcase project for children in need

 

MIAMI — A group of volunteers are making special gifts where children can lay their sleepy heads at night- handmade cotton pillowcases.

Members of Mount Olive Lutheran Church's Ruth Guild and the Ottawa County OSU Cooperative Extension are teaming together to create pillowcases as part of a county wide project for Ottawa County Home and Community Education (OHCE).

OHCE is a program of continuing education in all aspects of home and community life. The organization's ultimate mission is to educate its members to be well-informed and able to handle change in their homes and communities. It is a statewide and county based organization.

Through its relationship with the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service, OHCE presents research-based information to its members.

The volunteers and members met at Mount Olive Church on Tuesday where they worked in an assembly line to help create the pillowcases. Eleanor Botts, Ruth Guild member, said volunteers will meet at the church once a month to sew, iron and fold the cases.

The groups were awarded a $250 grant from Thrivent Financial to begin the community wide project to help provide comfort for children in need. The volunteers hope to distribute the cases out to children in foster care, shut ins and ones in the hospital.

“Originally, we wanted to give the pillowcases to children in the hospital, but then we came up with other ideas,” Botts said.

The grant gave the organizations a start to purchase fabric and materials to spearhead the project. The case makers are always looking for extra fabric or monetary donations.

“We’ve also received donations of fabric,” Botts said. “One lady moved away and instead of repacking her fabric, she gave it to us.”

The volunteer groups will be working closely with county organizations like the Wyandotte Lion's Club, who will help distribute the cases to foster children.

The pillowcases can be utilized in different ways than just sleeping.

“Some children we give the pillowcases to, they don’t even have a suitcase, so they end up using the pillowcase to put their belongings in,” Botts said. “You can use it for multiple things.”

The men and women work together to cut out, iron, sew and store the pillowcases in plastic bags. Then, the cases will be administered based on the needs of the surrounding communities.

“We try to focus where the need is,” Botts said. “With the pillowcases, we started out thinking we were going to make them for children with cancer, but then we figured we should give them to shut ins and then foster children.”

As of Tuesday, volunteers made 143 pillow cases that are ready for distribution and 100 more cases have been cut out and are ready for processing.

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