This week’s Volunteers in Action highlights just three of the many clubs using the work of their hands to benefit their local communities.
Over the 2022 Christmas holidays, the GFWC-KY Prestonburg Woman’s Club distributed toys and handmade quilts to the maternity and children’s wards at ARH Highlands hospital. As member Sabra Jacobs reports, “This is one of our favorite projects!”
The GFWC Tellico Village Woman’s Club (Tennessee) has worked for over a year on a community service project making breast cancer pillows, called “By Women – For Women.” On January 17, 2022, members gathered to make a first “test run” to see how the breast cancer pillow project would be received within our community. With a very positive response from the breast cancer centers, another event was held on September 21, 2022, this time with an invitation to all women of our community as a membership drive and an introduction to the club. At the end of the event, we had 125 completed pillows. The third event was held January 16, 2023 for the club’s MLK Community Service day, at which 200 pillows were completed. Each packaged pillow contains the verse: “A strong woman knows she has strength enough for the journey – but a woman of strength knows it is on the journey that she will become strong.”
The club’s membership drive was a huge success, growing from 23 to 39 members between December 2021 and February 2023. After distributing 370 pillows, Tellico Village Woman’s Club is not done; they are committed to continuing this project to help women during their difficult journeys with breast cancer.
And in honor of Valentine’s Day, the GFWC Illinois Woman’s Club of Bismarck took on two projects. Clubwomen decorated 15 small Valentine trees for the Alzheimer’s unit at the Danville VA Medical Center (part of a year-long initiative to decorate trees for various holidays and seasons, lifting the spirits of Danville veterans). The club also took 23 adult and 15 children’s Valentine treat bags to the Crosspoint at the Y Domestic Violence and Transitional Shelter. Cher Pollock, the center’s director, was very grateful to have these treat bags for Crosspoint residents.
