By Karla Jones:
Hello Fabulous Wellwood Afghan Volunteer Team!
We are forever grateful for your continued dedication to ensuring those who need the hug of a warm afghan, get one. Undergoing chemotherapy and/or radiation often leaves a patient feeling cold. Receiving an afghan not only provides them warmth, it brings them a sense of a caring community.
We welcome the new volunteers who have joined during 2024 and are appreciative for those who have been with us for over 20 years. Over 100 volunteers make up this wonderful team; those who knit or crochet either squares or full afghans, sew the squares together, sew the Wellwood labels on to each afghan, final package, deliver afghans between our community site and hospital site, and personally distribute at the hospital. Each one of you play an important role. I often hear a humble knitter/crocheter say “oh I just make squares”. Please don’t ever underestimate the importance that each of you bring.
When I took this program on two years ago, we were having to rebuild the base of volunteers post pandemic; everyone had all the time to knit during the pandemic and then resumed back to their everyday lives post pandemic. I am very happy to say that we have a steady flow of donations that I no longer lose sleep wondering if we will have enough every week. As a result of that, we are looking at expanding the distribution to other units or adding an additional day. We will do this slowly so as to ensure we can maintain our usual schedule. To that point, we are always recruiting and should you know of someone who would like to be involved, please pass their name or have them contact me directly.
I attended the weekly distribution at the hospital last week with Patti. I wish each of you could experience their gratitude in person. In particular, a mother and daughter literally cried tears of appreciation and gave us HUGE hugs when receiving the afghan. This gift goes beyond what you could imagine as making a difference in their day.
We will close out this year having distributed 28,764. It is always a bittersweet number to report knowing that each of us wish we didn’t have to do this at all.
On behalf of all staff at Wellwood, we wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season and look forward to 2025!
Warm regards,
Karla Jones
Manager of Volunteer Engagement
(she/her)
