St. Olaf's Youth Group

On Sunday, I had the privilege of visiting St. Olaf's Catholic Church to make a presentation to the youth group. St. Olaf's is in Poulsbo, our hometown, and they have been supporting Katie's Comforters Guild for a few years now, making and donating warm fleece blankets for patients through the inspiration of one of their members: Briana. Briana is our one junior guild member - and we'd love to have more like her!

I made a tri-fold presentation board and mounted photo collage pages on it (mentioned in a previous posting). I included information about guild membership, as well as about Katie's endowment and the progress in cancer research and treatment since her passing. I brought Katie's own comforter with me so that they could see how much love a blanket gets in the hospital.

We took photos together, and then they got to work, making another batch of fleece blankets to donate.

Photos courtesy of Mary Ryan, with permission from St. Olaf's Youth Group

Photos courtesy of Mary Ryan, with permission from St. Olaf's Youth Group

Photos courtesy of Mary Ryan, with permission from St. Olaf's Youth Group

Photos courtesy of Mary Ryan, with permission from St. Olaf's Youth Group

Photos courtesy of Mary Ryan, with permission from St. Olaf's Youth Group

The finished product! Photos courtesy of Mary Ryan, with permission from St. Olaf's Youth Group

Thank you, 

St. Olaf's Youth Group and leadership! 

Your spirit of giving and 

your helping hands 

will bring great comfort to patients.

Happy Anniversary!...and an Invitation

Our guild received a certificate of appreciation from Seattle Children's Hospital's Guild Association in honor of our 5th anniversary.

They plan to honor our guild at the Annual Membership Luncheon on May 9th, 2014. I hope you can attend!  
If you are not yet a member of our guild, please consider joining and you will be welcome to attend this luncheon.
It is going to be a star-studded event, featuring a keynote speech by Dr. Jim Hendricks, the president of Seattle Children's Research Institute, and a special guest appearance by Dr. Michael Jensen (of the Ben Towne Center for Childhood Cancer Research at Seattle Children's Research Institute).
The Katie Gerstenberger Endowment for Cancer Research supports Dr. Jensen's lab.
One of the special presentations at the luncheon will be by a patient, Milton Wright, who is now cancer-free after his third occurrence (second relapse) of leukemia. His cancer was wiped out after he was treated with the protocol which Dr. Jensen developed!

Heartfelt thanks 

to all of our guild members, 

friends and donors! 

We appreciate each one of you, 

who so generously share your

time, talent and treasure

with our guild 

in order to bring comfort 

to patients and families 

at Seattle Children's Hospital.

When I think about how it all began with this quilt

which brought such comfort to Katie,

I am thrilled with the power of an idea, when put into generous hearts and hands.

The very first quilt made by Katie's Comforters

HAPPY 5th ANNIVERSARY, friends!

Happy July, Thanks & Cancer Research BREAKTHROUGH NEWS!

Wishing you a happy July! Our guild has been blessed yet again by Lucile and Noble Nilsen. Here is the latest batch of Lucile's handiwork:

32 new quilts & blankets!

Tons of variety of color and pattern in there

If I could get them back into the bags, I would take them out to show you, but they are perfectly packed.

Thank you, Lucile & Noble!

I had the privilege of delivering some of our donated fabric to Gabriele, who is visiting our area this summer. Gabriele owns a quilter's retreat house in Texas, and has generously offered to sew for Katie's Comforters Guild this summer. We had a great meeting/hand-off, and I look forward to seeing what her creative imagination leads her to do with the fabric. Thank you, Gabriele!

We were grateful to receive a box of yarn from Georgann S., which we are going to give to Liberty Bay Books' Knitting Group; they will work their "magic" and turn it into blankets for patients. Thank you, Georgann!

You may have heard or read about the breakthrough at the Ben Towne Center for Childhood Cancer Research at Seattle Children's Hospital. In case you missed it, the patient in the first clinical trial for T-Cell therapy is in REMISSION. The Katie Gerstenberger Endowment for Cancer Research supports the work of the Ben Towne Center and we could not be happier to receive this news. To learn more, follow this link. You can find out more on the Ben Towne Foundation's website (www.bentownefoundation.org) and at www.komonews.com.

Keep us posted of your sewing, knitting, crocheting or fleece-making activities and we will be happy to post photos of your donations here and on our facebook page. Thank you all for your support!