By Jason Klaiber
Staff Writer
As the harsh winter months continue, BonaResponds is making it its mission to bring warmth to others.
On Saturday, Jan. 31, the volunteer organization will host Blanket Making Day at the Damietta Center in Francis Hall. The event has been organized for the past three years by Warm Snuggly Blanket, an ongoing project that uplifts cancer patients by making and sending blankets as well as letters of support.
Blanket Making Day will be marked by two separate shifts for which volunteers can sign up: 10:30 p.m. to 1 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Students can sign up on bonaresponds.org.
The idea for Warm Snuggly Blanket was conceived by faculty advisor of BonaResponds Jim Mahar’s mother, Marge, during her battle with stage four breast cancer. While undergoing treatments, she mentioned her hope for BonaResponds to start a program that would help people diagnosed with cancer.
“She decided one night that rather than getting mad at the cancer, she was going to pray for everyone who was praying for her,” Mahar said.
Mahar’s mother compared the emotional support others provided for her to a “warm, snuggly blanket” holding her and keeping her warm and safe.
In March 2012, a week after Marge’s passing, BonaResponds visited Villa Maria College in Buffalo, New York for a local service day. While there, Kim Kotz, the Villa Volunteers faculty advisor, took a handful of BonaResponds student leaders aside and asked them to help her with a special project without telling Mahar. By the time the group of volunteers met again at the end of the day, Kotz revealed that she and the St. Bonaventure students made about 18 blankets to take to Roswell Park Cancer Institute, the center where Mahar’s mother had undergone treatment.
Since then, the Warm Snuggly Blanket project has grown over the past two and a half years, supplying about 650 cancer patients with blankets.
“I’ve gone to wakes where people have our blanket on their caskets,” Mahar said. “It’s pretty powerful.”
Each fleece blanket is 6 feet by 4.5 feet and features a patch designed by Mahar’s mother herself. These patches contain the words that she lived by during her battle with cancer—”Pray, Fight, Win.”
Mahar’s New Year’s resolution was to give out an average of one blanket a day year-round, and he plans for Saturday’s volunteers to make at least 100 blankets with the 400 yards of material purchased for the event.
“I not only believe that we can reach our initial goal for the number of blankets that need to be made, but hopefully we’ll surpass that number as well,” second-year participant and senior history major Raylenn Duncan said. “The act of giving individuals with cancer a blanket gives them comfort and hope. It may even give them more of a positive outlook on their situation.”
Duncan has had a positive experience with making and donating the blankets.
“Being able to hear the stories of the recipients of the blankets and seeing their smiling faces is rewarding in itself.”
Sophomore accounting and finance major Ryland Wiseman, who volunteered for last year’s Blanket Making Day, expects a successful turnout on Saturday.
“I plan for this event to give us enough blankets to give out for at least this semester,” Wiseman said. “Not only is it a blanket to keep warm but it’s an object that fosters positivity and support through what seems like the worst of times. Volunteers usually have a personal stake. They maybe knew someone with cancer, so they also benefit because they get to support others going through similar situations.”
Participants can also register to set up on Friday at 4 p.m. and lend a hand in taking down and cleaning up at the conclusion of the event. Everyone is welcome to attend. Volunteers under the age of 18 must bring a signed permission slip from a parent or guardian, while an adult must accompany those under 16.
“I’m just shocked over and over and over again how much [the blankets] mean to people,” Mahar said. “I have given them to staunch atheists, and they break down in tears. Cancer’s a really, really scary thing. People [with cancer] very often pull away from others. This is our way of saying, ‘You’re not forgotten.’”
