GLOBAL WARMING
Local Mennonite group makes comforters to be donated around the world
FRANCONIA >> In 2018, the Mennonite Central Committee distributed more than 53,000 comforters to people in crisis around the world.
“Each comforter is unique and conveys a message of compassion,” J. Ron Byler, MCC U.S. executive director, said in a release. “People who get these comforters realize they are getting something personal. Someone has chosen the fabric and crafted each one with their hands. They understand this is a gift of love.”
One of the first events being done to celebrate MCC’s 100-year anniversary this year is The Great Winter Warm-up, which has a goal of making 6,500 comforters on or around Jan. 18, with volunteers making the comforters in places across the United States and Canada, as well as some places in Europe, said Sharon Swartzentruber,
coordinator of the MCC Material Resource Center on Hagey Center Drive in Franconia.
One of the places those comforters were being made was in a session at the MRC on Jan. 13. About 30 comforters were expected to be made that day to be added to the 88 already received from three days of comforter-making the previous week at Franconia Mennonite Church and 22 brought by volunteers from the western part of the state, Swartzentruber said. There were also other church groups working on comforters for the collection, she said.
“It takes a lot of people and a lot of steps,” to make the comforters, Swartzentruber said as she showed some of the in-process work being done.
In some cases, there are prepared patch designs to be used for the comforters, while in others the material first has to be decorated, she said.
“People who get these comforters realize they are getting something personal. Someone has chosen the fabric and crafted each one with their hands. They understand this is a gift of love.”
— J. Ron Byler, MCC U.S. executive director
“We get a lot of donations of plain white fabric, which isn’t very interesting, so we have people decorate it with markers and colored pencils and crayons and then we iron it with a hot iron to kind of set the colors into the fabric and then sew it together to make a comforter top,” she said.
“The next step is to tie all the knots to hold the layers — the top, the batting in the middle that makes it nice and warm, and then the backing fabric,” Swartzentruber said. “We tie knots to hold it all together and then after it’s all finished, we take a sewing machine and sew around the edge.”
“MCC was founded in 1920 when groups of Mennonites and Mennonite Brethren formed a committee to provide food and other assistance to people affected by war and famine in southern Russia, which is present-day Ukraine,” the MCC release said. “Today, MCC provides humanitarian relief, encourages sustainable development and strengthens peacebuilding initiatives in more than 50 countries. Comforters and blankets have been part of MCC’s relief resources ever since the end of World War II.”
The release also gave a look at where the comforters go.
“In recent years, comforters have brought warmth to people in Syria, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon who have lost family members, jobs and homes because of the war in Syria and other violence in the region. In Malawi, comforters were given to people whose homes were flooded and to refugees from neighboring countries,” MCC said.
Comforters have also been distributed to people in Ukraine who have been displaced by the fighting with Russia in the eastern part of the country, the release said.
Instructions on how to make the comforters, which may be donated any time throughout the year, is available at mcc.org/comforters. Information on the MCC Material Resource Center in Franconia is available at www.mcc-harleysville.org or by calling 267-203-8074.
Along with cash contributions, the local Material Resource Center collected and sent to MCC the following items in 2018 to be distributed to people in need around the world, according to information in a November 2019 fundraising letter: 1,164 comforters and blankets; 254 grocery bags; 2,772 relief kits; 3,520 school kits; 531 infant care kits; 1,600 hygiene kits; and 15,969 cans of meat.
Since 1946, the MCC mobile meat canner has prepared 21,546,491 cans, totaling 38,429,432 pounds of meat, the 2019-2020 “The Canner Times” reports. The canner’s annual stop at the Material Resource Center in Franconia will be Monday, March 30 through Wednesday, April 1.