Senior Center volunteers sew blankets for EMS patients

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Lucy Hughes (left) and Pauline Cox hand over two of the blankets they sewed for Danville’s Fire and Emergency Medical Services departments to paramedic Steve Hartsock (left) and EMS Division Chief Alan Pike while other personnel look on. / Photos by Wade Coggeshall
Hughes has Hartsock test one of the blankets for warmth and comfort. Three volunteers at the Hendricks County Senior Center sewed almost three dozen blankets.

January 5, 2010

By Wade Coggeshall The Hendricks County Flyer Tue Jan 05, 2010, 03:17 PM EST

DANVILLE — Three volunteers at the Hendricks County Senior Center here ensured a donation of fabric would be put to good use.

Pauline Cox, Lucy Hughes, and Goldie Burton spent about five weeks sewing almost three dozen blankets that were to be donated to EMTs here. Cox and Hughes personally handed over the blankets to Danville paramedics and firefighters Tuesday morning at the senior center.

“We have really great volunteers here,” said Sharon Severy, activities coordinator for Hendricks County Senior Services. “This was their idea.”

It started when a man donated the fabric to the center. It had been his mother’s.

“He figured we could make good use of it,” Severy said.

The center boasts more than 150 volunteers.

“Some help a couple times a year,” Severy said. “Some are there all the time. I couldn’t do my job without them.”

Cox and Hughes, she added, “get involved in everything.”

The ladies thought blankets for emergency personnel to give to victims was a good idea. Severy called Danville EMS Division Chief Alan Pike, who was receptive. He said the department had never received such a donation.

“We get a lot of stuffed animals,” Pike said. “Those work well for our younger patients. They take their mind off what’s going on. We’re hoping to use these in conjunction with that, and obviously to keep them warm.”

Cox estimates she sewed 18 of the blankets herself. She didn’t take up the hobby until 1994, the year after her husband died.

“I have all the time in the world now to sew,” she said.

And she takes advantage of it. After learning to sew through a 4-H home economics class, Cox now regularly makes pillows for Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis and bibs for newborns at Hendricks Regional Health in Danville. Tags on the latter read, “From Hendricks County’s oldest to Hendricks County’s newest.” The volunteers use material that’s either donated or purchased by themselves. Cox bought batting to make the blankets softer and warmer. They looked good enough for paramedic Terry Presslor.

“I want to wrap up in one now,” he said. “They’re looking pretty warm. It’s awfully cold outside. I’m thinking I could curl up in one and take a really nice nap.”

Pike said the blankets will be kept in the department’s ambulances.

“This time of year, especially, these blankets will be put to good use,” he said.

———

Online:

www.hendricksseniors.org

www.danvillefire.org

wade.coggeshall@flyergroup.com

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