A group of industrious volunteers from Heisinger Bluffs will receive the 2021 LeadingAge Missouri Volunteer of the Year Award today.
Sewing With a Cause, led by residents Vera Backman and Emma Bonnot, is a group of the facility's residents - from independent living, assisted living, long-term care and memory-care assisted living - who make pillows embroidered with animals for women and children in need at local shelters, hospitals and the Special Learning Center.
Backman and Bonnot founded the Heisinger Bluffs group in 2016, and it has 25 active members. Another 25 volunteers stuff the pillows.
Each year, the group broadens its projects, having added items such as "walker bags" for fellow residents, fidget blankets for friends with dementia and "resurrection butterfly quilts" in honor of residents who have died.
Sewing With a Cause has also made graduation gowns and clothing protectors for children with special needs, pillowcases for the Rape and Abuse Crisis Center, and pocketed Tooth Fairy pillows for children receiving oral surgery.
Special projects the groups have participated in include hemming pants for local veterans and assembling sewing kits for children in Haiti (so they can mend their school uniforms).
LeadingAge Missouri has previously recognized people from Heisinger Bluffs. Most recently, Lori Baumhoer, Heisinger Bluffs' director of wellness, was chosen as the 2019 Client Services Employee of the Year.
LeadingAge Missouri is devoted to furthering the interests of residents across the entire continuum of senior living care. Its vision is that of a long-term care system that compassionately offers accessible, affordable, high-quality innovative health care, housing and community services, according to its website.
The organization presents its awards during its annual conference, which this year is being held through Wednesday at Chase Park Plaza Hotel in St. Louis.
Sewing With a Cause had to put its work on hold in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions to group activities.
However, the volunteers realized the need for face mask production, and created a plan to conduct that activity while remaining apart.
Organizers developed a contactless assembly line. Some volunteers would wash and iron (donated) fabric, then drop it off at the next apartments, where the next volunteers would then cut patterns.
Volunteers passed the cut fabric to the next group (each member remaining separate in their room), who assembled and sewed the masks. Masks then passed to the final group, which installed elastic bands.
Sewing With a Cause produced 925 masks. In just one week, it completed 685 masks for staff and residents of Heisinger Bluffs.
But, the group in 2021 is getting back to business as usual, and has added new nonprofits to its list of recipients.
"Residents are excited to return to meeting face to face and having their pillow-stuffing parties," the group's nomination letter said. "So much fun is had while making these intricate works of art. Some of the most rewarding moments include when long-term-care residents, who are no longer able to help with the intricacies of sewing, help by stuffing pillows. These residents bring so much joy to the experience as the work sparks memories of when they would make things on their own for their families."