SHANNON WEST
Contributing Writer
According to the American Cancer Society, over one million people will be diagnosed with cancer this year, along with over five-hundred thousand cancer deaths in the United States.
Warm Snuggly Blankets was created to help those cancer patients.
The project “Warm Snuggly Blankets” arose when the mother of Jim Mahar, faculty coordinator of BonaResponds, died of breast cancer in late March 2012. She stated one day that she was imagining the people who have sent her flowers and cards, and prayed for them, stating that it was “like a warm snuggly blanket enfolding [her].” Her wish was to help people with cancer after she got better. Mahar sad he and his mother were planning to announce such a program within BonaResponds from the day she was diagnosed with cancer.
Mahar said the plan had been to help cancer patients drive to the Roswell Park Cancer Institute.
“You’re sitting there. You’re getting chemo. You’re alone, and she just hated that,” Mahar said. “She didn’t want for people to have to do it alone.”
BonaResponds volunteered at Villa Maria College in Buffalo, a week after Maher’s mother’s funeral. Kim Kotz, Villa Volunteers faculty advisor, took a group of students from the volunteer effort for a specific project in mind.
“They [Kotz and the students] had made blankets and called them ‘warm snuggly blankets,’” Mahar said. “They were going to cancer patients at Roswell, so that when they were getting chemo, they would know that people love you. You’re not forgotten about, and you’re not an outcast. That was the beginning of it. We took that and it has grown, and we have now given over 500 blankets to people pretty much across the country.”
BonaResponds, having formed weeks after Hurricane Katrina, has since helped with volunteer efforts such as disasters in Buffalo, cleaning up from the damage of Hurricane Sandy in Long Island, as well as bringing school supplies to children in Haiti.
“You have to hope for a miracle sometimes,” Mahar said. “Miracles can happen to anyone, and you just go and do what you can to give them blankets and say, ‘Hey, we may not be able to heal you physically right now but at least mentally we can keep you going and who knows, tomorrow, the next day, the next year, you never know when that can happen.’ You just have to keep hoping and praying in time.”
BonaResponds can give out blankets to anyone who wants to send blankets to family or friends with cancer. For more information on BonaResponds and the Warm Snuggly Blankets project, contact Mahar at BonaResponds@gmail.com or by calling him at 585-376-0231.
westsm14@bonaventure.edu
