So when Betty and Angie Gum, a mother-daughter team from Springfield who've been making Linus blankets for a little more than a year, read thank-you cards describing their work posted outside Bergner's in Hickory Point Mall on Saturday as part of an observance of National Project Linus Make a Blanket Day, it was a bonus.
They were written by third-graders at Lincoln Elementary School in Clinton about the fleece blankets they received last month after their teacher, 42-year-old Judy Hendricker, died of breast cancer. Their new teacher told them they represented hugs from Hendricker.
Jessi Benson drew a picture of her blanket, which is covered with penguins, and wrote it is very special to her.
"We got to cuddle up with the blankets at school," she continued. "Everybody loved the blankets and said they were going to sleep with them."
"We don't expect thank-you notes because of what these children and their families are going through," said chapter coordinator Mary Balagna, "but when we do get them, it makes everyone want to do more and inspires us to keep going."
There appeared to be no shortage of inspiration Saturday as a record 165 people brought and made a total of 848 blankets for the eighth annual Make a Blanket Day. Long tables lined with people sewing, cutting and quilting filled the area outside Bergner's and spilled over to the mall's southeast entryway.
Blanketeers ranged in age from 91-year-old Elzora Channer of Decatur to 9-year-old Brooklyn Jewsbury of Pana, who each were working on fleece blankets on the north and south ends of all this activity.
"I did quilting until I got too old to see," Channer said as she rested a moment on a walker that doubles as a chair. "It's wonderful to see so many people getting interested."
Brooklyn, who was working alongside great-aunts Gayle Bronson, Janice Waddell and Marcia Zellner, all of Decatur, represents a growing number of younger people making blankets for the chapter.
Balagna said among volunteers Saturday were a teenager doing community service for the National Honor Society, two Girl Scout troops and a number of "family affairs" that included at least one mother and son.
"We used to be concerned that blanket-making was becoming a lost art," she said, "but now we're seeing these techniques making a comeback, and it's very exciting."
Kim Wheeler, 15, of Bethany said she and her classmates made blankets last school year as thank-you gifts for their teachers at Okaw Valley Middle School in Findlay and Saturday was working with other members of Girl Scout Troop 3097 toward her Silver Award.
She also believes blanket-making honors the memory of her mother, Carol Ann Wheeler, who died of lung cancer in August at age 48. "She was always cold, and someone made a tie blanket for her," Kim said.
Theresa Churchill can be reached at tchurchill@herald-review.com or 421-7978.
jr
BOX
Voting for a record 47 Boo-Boo Kids quilts on display Friday and Saturday near Von Maur in Hickory Point Mall raised $2,740 for the Central Illinois Chapter of Project Linus.
Votes, costing $1 each or six for $5, put Lisa Welton, Decatur, in first place in the adult category. Second was Linda Busbey, Decatur; third was Evelyn Guinan, Petersburg; and fourth was Eleanor Kirby, Decatur.
In the children's category, Sarah Welton, Decatur, won first place, and Chuck O'Neill, Forsyth, placed second.
In the judged category, Brenda Galo, Decatur, was the winner, followed by Lisa Welton, second; Colleen Curtis, Decatur, third; and Evelyn Guinan and Bunny Filer, Mahomet, honorable mention.
The winner of a drawing for a new sewing machine donated by Stewart's Sewing was Amy Maxey of Decatur.
To see more of Herald & Review, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.herald-review.com Copyright (c) 2008, Herald & Review, Decatur, Ill. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
More News:
Market Updates |
Stock Alerts |
All Trading News |
Stock Index
|
|
