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Garner Senior Center helped by volunteers

By Lisa Mumma
Web intern

When surprise donations of beautiful fabrics, yarns and notions arrive at the Garner Senior Center doorstep on East Garner Road, it’s a different kind of Christmas morning for Joan Davis. As leader of On the Mend, a collaboration of retirement-age volunteers who share their sewing, knitting and crocheting talents to benefit area service agencies and hospitals, she relishes the gift of joy it will bring the group as well as the group’s future recipients.

On the Mend members Joan Gasner, Melba Cook and Hazel Dickey stand ready to assist customers at the group’s annual craft sale held recently at the Garner Senior Center. LISA MUMMA, GCNT

“I don’t always know who donates, but I surely welcome these items, and I really appreciate the generosity of the giver,” said Davis, a New Hampshire native who came to Garner seven years ago to be close to family.

While various stages of the projects are completed by members in their homes, the artisans gather at the center twice a week to create an assortment of handmade quilts, receiving blankets, newborn hats, slippers, dolls and teddy bears.

They also craft specialized items such as incubator blankets, burial gowns and angel bags for infants, walker bags and lab robes for nursing home residents as well as “busy aprons” for Alzheimer’s patients.

“We provide things that one usually can’t find in a store,” Davis said.

While hospitals supply some materials specific to their patients’ needs, the group’s primary support comes from community contributions and fundraisers such as the craft sale the center recently hosted.

Davis embraces the cooperative spirit of the group’s mission and notes that the creative process extends past the front door of the senior center.

Steve Kolacz, artist and owner of Grafix House Design Studio, became involved with the senior center project because his grandmother is a member of the group. The studio is located on Main Street, across the railroad tracks from the center. Kolacz and wife Stacy, who is also an artist, hand paint faces on “Huggables,” the flannel dolls the members make for pediatric patients.

“It’s amazing what these ladies are doing,” Kolacz said. “Our role is minor, but we love helping in this way.”

Related articles:

• Garner volunteers to walk in the Triangle Walk to Defeat ALS
• At Lawndale Manor and USO, volunteers have holiday spirit

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