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St. Thomas More Parishioners Make Pillowcases, Knit Hats for Children at St. Jude’s Hospital

By Christen M. Stroh

When 10-year-old Anna Fera was diagnosed with a medulloblastoma brain tumor in April of 2016, her family, lifelong parishioners of St. Thomas More in Bethel Park, turned to the church for prayers, and the parish was more than willing to provide assistance in any way that they could to help Anna and her family.

Kids made cards for the children being cared for at St. Jude’s.

Fundraising efforts to help them with traveling and other expenses were quickly put into place, as Anna is receiving treatment at St. Jude’s in Memphis, TN and has been since this past May.

As the holidays approached, the parishioners who knew Anna and were invested in helping her started to think about other children at St. Jude’s. They began to brainstorm ways in which they could help more children than just Anna during the holiday season. And thus, the Pillowcase Project was born. “This is our way of something more we could do as a parish family,” said Kerry Mindach, director of religious education at St. Thomas More. The concept, she explained, came from one of her catechists, Cindy DeLo, who can sew. What if we made some Christmas pillowcases for the children of St. Jude’s?, she thought.

The notion of pillowcases came about because the children at St Jude’s spend the most time in their beds, and many don’t get the chance to go home for Christmas. “Cindy and I were talking about kids who spend their Christmases in the hospital…how can we bring more Christmas to them other than just giving gifts? We thought that Christmas pillowcases would make them feel at home,” said Mindach. Originally, the group wanted to also provide pillows with the pillowcases, but due to hygienic concerns on behalf of the hospital, they were only permitted to send the pillowcases.

Christmas pillowcases were made to bring some holiday cheer to the children at St. Jude’s.

To get volunteers to help, a project day was established for the Sunday after Thanksgiving – November 27. Called Sweet Anna Fera Project Day, Mindach promoted it in the church bulletin, asking for people to assist in any way that they could. Parishioner Heather Metzger, who owns Kid Ewe Knot, a local yarn shop in Bridgeville, donated yarn and knitting needles to make knit hats and volunteered her time to teach people how to knit. Patrons came to not only sew pillowcases with donated materials, but also to cut and iron the fabric in preparation. Kids and adults alike were both invited to come and make cards to send with the pillowcases to St. Jude’s.

All in all, there were a few dozen hats that were knitted and 200 pillowcases that were sewed by the volunteers at the end of the day. “What was really wonderful is that such a diverse group of people was there, people from all ages who came together for that project day,” said Mindach.

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