Tuolumne girl donates pillows to long-term care patients
Aubree Burns, of Tuolumne, is a craft-making, soccer-playing, Starbuck-drinking, 8-year-old entrepreneur who, after retiring from her summer business, donated homemade pillows to Adventist Health Sonora Sierra Care Center.
“For a young person to realize the importance of giving, by making the pillows and then donating them to someone else, it’s heartwarming,” said Susan Rinna, Sierra Care Center activities director. “A pillow to hug is something that our patients will love.”
Sierra Care Center has two longterm care locations in Sonora; Unit 6 is located at 179 South Fairview Lane and Unit 7 is located at 538 Ponderosa Drive. A transitional care unit is adjacent to Unit 6 and provides short-term orthopedic, neurological and medical rehabilitation.
Rinna said Aubree was “beaming” and “full of pride” when she made the donation of the soft, small, headrest-sized colorful, flan
nel pillows. Her grandmother, Laura Burns, of Tuolumne, set up the donation and took Aubree to meet Rinna at the care facility in Sonora on Nov. 22.
Following a summer spent making and selling pillows, the Summerville Elementary School thirdgrader found herself stock leftover, so she and her grandmother talked about what to do with them and came to a decision together.
“Aubree said she wanted to give the pillows she made, ‘to the grandmas,’” Rinna said. “Our patients will get them for Christmas.”
“It felt really good. There are a lot of sick, elderly people,” Aubree said regarding why she chose to give the pillows to Sierra Care Center.
Upon leaving the longterm facility, after talking with Rinna and making her donation, Aubree turned to her grandmother and said, “Nana, that makes me feel warm inside,” Laura Burns said.
Laura Burns was moved by Aubree’s words and told her granddaughter, “Now you know the good feeling that giving brings.”
The pillow-making business, which ended for the year with the donation, actually began when the third-grader needed a birthday gift for family
“She had a very busy summer season. A very busy pillow season. It was a lot of work.”
— Laura Burns, grandmother of Aubree Burns
member Dietra Rogers. Aubree told her grandmother that she wanted to make, not buy, something special for Rogers.
“I’m very crafty,” Laura Burns said. “Aubree likes to make things too.”
After going through her crafting supplies in search of a potential present, Laura Burns noticed she had a fat quarter, a pre-cut piece of quilting fabric, as well as pillow stuffing on hand.
The two agreed to make a small birthday pillow for Rogers and worked together to get the right amount of stuffing inside the material before finishing the project with her sewing machine.
“Last January 2021 was the beginning of this adventure,” Laura Burns said. “It all started with one pillow.”
The birthday pillow was purple, with little patterns that included dots and little prints on it, and was made of cotton.
“Dietra loved her pillow,” Laura Burns said. “Next thing you know, other family members and friends are asking Aubree to make them pillows.”
At that point the 8-yearold told her grandmother she was going to open a pillow shop, but she was “not going to work on weekends,” Laura Burns said, laughing as she recounted the story.
True to her word and with the assistance of her grandmother, Aubree made approximately 80 pillows. After making the first pillow, the two decided to switch from a cotton fiber to a flannel fabric because it is softer.
Aubree, who began selling her homemade creations locally, as well as at campsites throughout California, worked hard to prepare for the annual family camping trip to Dillon Beach in June.
She made more than a dozen pillows to sell while camping, crabbing and spending time with family and friends.
“We’ve raised all of our grandchildren around camping,” Laura Burns said, referring to her husband, Tim.
The grandparents enjoy packing up their RV, loading up their grandchildren and heading out to their favorite camping spots, including Fraser Flat, Dardanelle Resort and Lawson’s Landing in Dillon Beach, located on the coast, approximately 50 miles north of San Francisco, where the family go crabbing.
In July and August, the family set up a table at the Tuolumne Open Air/ Farmers Market located in the Tuolumne Memorial Park, where Aubree sold her homemade pillows on three or four Wednesdays before the event ended for the season.
Admittedly shy, the task of interacting with people who approached the table was not easy for the third-grader in the beginning.
“I was nervous,” she said. “I had a lot of people saying they are cute.”
The compliments people made about her pillows gave Aubree the confidence necessary to talk to potential buyers and over time the task became easier, she said.
The new-found confidence she gained motivated Aubree as she prepared for a family camping trip to the Dardanelle Resort in August.
With over a dozen orders for pillows from family and friends who would be camping too, Aubree got busy picking out patterns, stuffing pillows and sewing to meet the demand of the special orders and any extras she planned to sell on a table set up outside of the resort’s little store.
“They were a huge hit,” Laura Burns said. “Who doesn’t need a pillow when you are camping?”
In all, Aubree’s Pillow Shop made 80 pillows during the summer, which she sold for $5 each. She also managed to juggle her small business, vacation with family and play summer league soccer.
“She had a very busy summer season. A very busy pillow season,” her grandmother said. “It was a lot of work.”
Financial support from pillow customers over the long summer was consistent. The majority of the spoils from the effort went into a savings account for Aubree. Some of the money went to purchasing new material and stuffing, as well as other crafting supplies. Even after all of that, there was a little bit of coin left for a mini shopping spree at TJ Maxx, Laura Burns said.
Monetary profits made the shopping spree possible, but not memorable. For Aubree, the best part of donating the pillows “to the grandmas” was the lesson she took away from it.
“It is better to give than to receive,” she said.