Children at the Raymus House will have a keepsake to call their own.
They’ll take with them the handcrafted pillow cases donated Friday by the Del Webb Quilters led by Ellen Lee-Wooten.
“We started working on the pillowcases in March during the COVID-19 pandemic (stay-at-home orders),” she said.
Lee-Wooten along with Donna Sellers — she was responsible for producing most of the donated 100 pillowcases — Adele Hamilton, Lorna Powell, Nancy Kettner, Margo Berenberg, Elizabeth Cunning and Shannen Brown put in countless of hours in the Del Webb Quilters’ endeavor.
Lee-Wooten, who had to go online to order the fabric due to the business shutdowns, began making pillowcases for her children and adopted children. “My late husband and I adopted five and we had six of our own,” she said.
TLC Real Estate & RE/Max Executive chipped in, purchasing 100 brand new pillows to go with the pillowcases, said local realtor Lori Little-Mallory.
The Raymus House is a shelter for homeless single mothers and their children. Each family has fully furnished bedroom along with a shared living areas and essential chores — food is provided at no charge and counseling is made available for all residents.
“Each room is adopted by a cooperation, church or service organization,” said HOPE Ministries Inc. CEO Cecily Ballungay.
The Raymus House is part of HOPE Ministries’ “Project Hope.”
Ballungay noted that there are currently nine families staying in the Raymus House. “We’ve had up to 20 to 30 kids at any given time,” she said.
Each will have a memento of their time there.
“They’ll take with them the (donated) pillowcases from today to keep,” said Ballungay.