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Blankets Give Foster Children Extra Comfort

By Staff | Apr 24, 2013

Pictured are Kay Morris and Becky Livingston with some of the approximately 85 quilts and blankets given to the Wetzel County Department of Health and Human Resources for foster children.

The Stitching Sisters, a quilting group, and friends recently made and donated about 85 quilts and blankets to the Wetzel County Department of Health and Human Resources. They will be distributed to foster children in Wetzel, Tyler, and Marshall counties.

The donation was part of an organized effort called My Very Own Blanket that is dedicated to helping children in foster care feel valued and comforted. “Blankets are comforting and familiar and children can take them from one home to another,” says a brochure on the program.

Livingston said some of the local volunteers she works with had helped ladies from Sardis for several years as they had joined My Very Own Blanket, which was started by a woman in Westerville, Ohio.

Finally they decided to start their own chapter in West Virginia.

Through the loving care of volunteers like those who give locally, nearly 6,000 blankets are donated each year to children in foster care. Becky Livingston is the representative for the organization in the tri-county area. Anyone who wants to donate to the program, through blankets, time, supplies, or money, can contact her at 304-266-2122.

Each blanket includes a tag to be filled out for the foster child from the case worker.

The blankets can be crocheted, knitted, quilted, or more simply made like tied fleece. Each blanket is personalized with the child’s name, a tradition for My Very Own Blanket since 1999.

Patty Plyler, the Wetzel County DHHS Home Finder, was very appreciative of the donation. She also noted that there is always a need for more people to volunteer to provide foster homes.