Each year, the donated blankets go through The Healing Patch and Nurse-Family Partnership, which are then distributed to local organizations such as fire stations and nursing homes.

Saint Francis administrative specialist Melita O’Donnell said the blankets have “touched the lives of so many people” and that the people who make them know they are helping people in need.

In 2006, faculty members Robin Cadwallader and Margaret Keeley started the blanket collection with the support of administrative assistants O’Donnell and Linda Kline. The tradition has continued since that time.

During their first year, they received 77 blankets, whereas in 2022, they collected 381 blankets. In total, blanketeers from across the region have donated more than 3,257 blankets.

Donated blankets sit in a crib on the third floor of Scotus Hall at Saint Francis University. Mirror photo by Colette Costlow

“It keeps growing year after year,” she said.

Primarily, they focused on collecting 36-by-48-inch children’s blankets featuring bright colors and patterns. In the last three years, however, O’Donnell said the group decided to accept blankets for elderly communities as well.

Saint Francis takes blankets from anyone ranging from independent creators to knit and crochet groups like Highland Hooks and Needles, who regularly donate to the collection.

Based out of Johnstown, a group of 16 women meet twice a month to “sit around, talk and work on our projects,” member Shelby Trybus said.

Seeing an ad for wanted blankets in the paper, Trybus said she brought the idea to the group one day, and they have been making blankets for the collection every year since.

SFU assistant English professor Lisa Beiswenger sews tags onto donated blankets. Mirror photo by Colette Costlow

This season, they donated 31 blankets to the collection.

“It’s a worthwhile project,” Trybus said.

After blankets are donated to the collection, volunteers like Saint Francis assistant English professor Lisa Beiswenger help out by sewing tags into the fabric.

Although Beiswenger does not make the blankets, her group spends about 13 hours in total labeling each of them with a tag displaying a picture of a teddy bear along with “Saint Francis University Community Blanketeers” across the fabric, she said.

Looking forward to the event, Beiswenger said she is “one of the few people who get to touch all of the blankets.”

“I feel like I am a part of it even if I am not making anything,” she said.

Beiswenger said she has been hooked since fall of 2021. She appreciates the organization’s mission of giving back to the community because “a lot of the blankets go to kids who are dealing with grief and people in nursing homes who need that extra love.”

Currently, the blankets are being collected inside of a crib sitting in Scotus Hall, which was bought by the school’s President’s Office. At the end of the drive, O’Donnell said the crib is also donated to a family in need through the Dorothy Day Outreach Center.

O’Donnell said the stories over the course of 19 years from those getting blankets are “so touching.”

With blankets, Beiswenger said that the organization is able to provide “comfort to so many people,” which falls in line with the school’s mission of giving back to the community.

Mirror Staff Writer Colette Costlow is at 814-946-7414.