WILLIAMSBURG — The season of giving is in full swing at Zion Lutheran Church as the congregation prepares Christmas Cheer packages for community members that could use added joy over the holidays.

Pastor Tiffany Marvich came up with the idea last year as a way to help people get through a Christmas that many spent social distancing away from family.

“Because of the pandemic with people being so isolated and lonely, we thought that could be a way that we could just reach out and provide some cheer,” Marvich said.

The packages include both purchased and donated items such as mugs with tea and hot chocolate inside, stuffed animals, word searches and crafts with messages of faith made by children in the congregation.

Last year, because of the pandemic, only Marvich and representatives from Cross Roads Church and St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Williamsburg worked to assemble and distribute the packages before Christmas. The trio managed to get out a total of 48 packages.

“It was kind of thrown together because we weren’t even gathering inside last December so we couldn’t coordinate stuff,” Marvich said. “You just had to do it and kind of go by the fly.”

The packages were well-received, Marvich said, recalling how they had gotten thank you cards in the days after their delivery.

This year, Marvich, her congregation, people from the Williamsburg unit of St. Vincent de Paul and other community volunteers intend to double the number of Christmas Cheer packages they assemble and deliver.

“We decided to double it because we now have more people in the community who are going to be involved besides just our congregation,” Marvich said. “Which means we have more hands to spread the Christmas cheer by delivering the packages.”

Since Marvich has been the church’s pastor for the past 14 and a half years, she said she’ll make a list of possible people who might benefit from receiving a package.

The packages will be assembled during a church service as a part of their worship, and then members of the congregation will be able to take and distribute them.

The church does other forms of outreach as well, Marvich said, such as housing the local food bank and making quilts, health kits and school kits for the World Lutheran Relief Fund.

Linda Weko, a member of the church’s congregation, has sewn her whole life, usually spending three or four hours a day working on various projects. For the past nine years, she has lended

her talents to the church by helping make quilts that are sent to those in need in places like Armenia, Haiti, Nicaragua and Zambia.

“The thing I think is interesting about these quilts is, of course, they’re used for bedding, but some people will use them as clothing, some people will use them to transport their items to the market and then display their items with the blanket as well,” Marvich said.

Weko, along with Gay Gorsuch, Maire Mumich and Judy Edwards gather in the church’s basement every Tuesday from 9 to 10:30 a.m. to work on the quilts. They make an average of 100 quilts a year, with their ‘season’ running from October to September, Weko said.

A lot of the material used to make the quilts is donated, according to Weko.

“If people are cleaning out their material, they’ll bring it,” Weko said. “One lady, I think about three years ago, brought us 18 bins of it. That took us a couple years to work through.”

The quilts are usually

56 by 80 inches but they can vary in size due to some of the donated material being old and stretching in different ways, according to Weko.

The group uses the knotting method to create their quilts, which involves stitching a tough thread through the quilts 3 layers and tying a knot to secure them together. The knots ensure the layers don’t shift as the quilt is washed and used.

According to Gorsuch, Weko takes the quilts home to sew them and then they all tie the knots at their Tuesday meetings.

Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected their outputs in recent seasons. In 2019, 2020 and 2021 they made 66, 60 and 81 quilts, respectively. From 2016 to 2018 they made 100 quilts a year.

“We were pleased that we got up in the 80s for the year because we weren’t together much,” Weko said.

The church ladies have been trying to recruit extra hands to help with the quilts. They agree that anyone can do it and sewing skills aren’t necessary.

“If you know how to make a square knot, you’re good to go,” Gorsuch said.

Weko recalled how the group was about to finish

12 quilts in one day when five students came to help them during Williamsburg Community High School’s Day of Service in late October.

“They were just so much fun to have those kids here, and I think that’s wonderful to have that intergenerational thing, you know,” Weko said.

The quilters also use their weekly meetings to strengthen their fellowship. While working, they are able to catch up with each other or ask how other people are doing, like one member who is currently recovering from breast cancer, Marvich said.

“I feel like these kinds of groups, you get to know each other in a different kind of way than just sitting together in worship,” Weko said. “We get to know each other in a more close way.”

The church is currently a few months into making quilts for its 2022 season and shows no sign of slowing down. According to Marvich, in the last nine years they have donated

805 quilts, 607 health kits and 511 school kits to Lutheran World Relief.

“We’re just trying to be a light,” Marvich said.

Mirror Staff Writer Rachel Foor is at 814-946-7458.