Young Kansas
volunteer makes blankets for anyone who needs them
By Jill Ragar Esfeld
Catholic News Service
And he’s bound and determined that everyone
gets one.
A front-page story on Catholic Community
Hospice that appeared last fall in The Leaven, newspaper of the
Archdiocese of Kansas City, started it all.
“He was just blown away that there were
people out there who were dying and didn’t have things,” said Lisa McClain, a
member of Good Shepherd Parish. “And he kept saying, ‘At least I could give
them a blanket. Everybody deserves a blanket.’”
Fifty blankets later, Connor was presented
with a medal during National Volunteer Week this April to acknowledge his
efforts in supplying Catholic Charities with throws for hospice patients and
more than 50 handmade blankets for its mother-baby program.
When asked to explain why he feels everyone
deserves a blanket, Connor produced his own well-worn green fleece throw
covered in soccer balls.
“My mom made this for me,” he said. “It’s
nice because it makes me think of my mom and it makes me think of my sport.”
Connor helped make his blanket, fringing
the edges and tying the two sides of fleece together. When he learned about the
blanket project for hospice patients, he asked his mom if he could make another
blanket for this special cause.
“I decided the best thing would be for us
to give them a blanket before they died,” he explained, “just to show them some
other people are caring for them -- that they’re not just alone with their
family.”
So with the help of classmates at
In the past, his school held donation
drives for Catholic Charities’ mother-baby program. Connor wondered if each of
the 51 students in his third-grade class might make a baby blanket instead.
“I thought giving them something where they could be warm and stuff would be good,” Connor told
The Leaven. “(The moms) could wrap it around the baby and keep them warm when
they were sleeping.”
Connor pitched the idea
to his class, promising fellow students that if they could raise some money, he
would purchase and cut the fleece fabric and teach them how to tie the pieces
together to make blankets.
Third-grade teachers
Stacy Best and Ann Smith thought it would be a great Lenten service project.
Students responded with enthusiasm and generosity,
collecting $141.
With his mom’s help, Connor determined how
much fabric would be needed, and then went from store to store to see what was
on sale and who might give him a discount. Once he found the best deal, the
fabric selection process began.
“He’d pick out each piece of fabric and
say, ‘That would be good for a little boy; now what
would the little boy want on the other side?’” recalled McClain. “We had four
carts. It took forever and I was kind of getting to the end of my rope because
I also had a kindergartner and a 3-year-old (Connor’s brothers).”
But some things just can’t be rushed,
Connor explained.
“I just was trying to think of something
that little kids would like, not just something that I would like,” he added.
Connor and his mom spent their spring break
cutting the fleece into baby-blanket-size pieces, fringing the edges, matching
up fabrics and tying the corners together on each blanket.
After the break, Connor took the blankets
to school, giving one to each classmate to finish the fringe. Each student also
made a baby card to accompany his or her blanket.
When the project was completed, Connor
delivered the cards and blankets to Betty Marler,
director of volunteer services for Catholic Community Health Care, and said of
the experience, “I wasn’t scared or anything.”