St. Paul’s sewing club donated blankets to Calumet Township Trustee Kimberly Robinson for distribution to the homeless

St. Paul MB Church delivers blankets to the homeless

Contributed By: The 411 News

When the sewing club at St. Paul MB Church, in Gary, decided to make quilts and donate them to the homeless, the gesture gained support from the entire church.

Thursday morning, quilts and comforters were presented to Calumet Township Trustee Kimberly Robinson for distribution to the homeless in and around Calumet Township.

Denise Crowther, a sewing club member and St. Paul’s Special Events Coordinator recalled how their mission began. “I was telling the club about an experience when I was a young woman and needed medical help at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. It was in the winter. There were people in the emergency room throwing up from hypothermia. People with ankles so big, that they were bursting. It was horrible. Since then, I never forgot in the winter that as much as I struggle with my NIPSCO, I never complained, because I always reflect that I'm not homeless.”

Sewing club member Loretta Herron said, “We're already putting our heads together as to what we can do next year. It's just a thrill to be able to help. We’re a Missionary Baptist Church, that’s what we do.”

Church members who didn't sew bought fabrics for the quilts. They bought blankets to go inside the quilts. Some purchased comforters and donated them to the sewing club.

Gary’s homeless population is invisible, Crowther said. “Not like we see them on Wacker Drive in Chicago. Yet we know it exists because of all our warming shelters.”

For Township Trustee Robinson this was the right time of year to receive the quilts and comforters. Every year, the township works with the Continuum of Care’s Point-in-Time homeless count. The Point-in-Time count is a count of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January. “They always ask us to donate blankets. So when they're out and someone is in need, blankets are available to them,” Robinson said.

The Trustee also supplies bedding to the City of Gary’s warming centers which open up to the homeless during severe winter weather conditions. The bedding will also be used at the Trustee’s homeless shelter in its Multipurpose Center.

“This is by far the most pleasing part of my job. It’s the service aspect that I love so much. I love it when I connect groups and people who may not know each other. It helps everyone,” Robinson said.


St. Paul’s sewing club (l-r) Rena Oliver, Mary Lee, Loretta A. Herron, Calumet Township Trustee Kimberly Robinson, Denise Crowther, Delores Crawford, Bernadette Blackwell, and Wilma Watson. Not pictured is Linda Morgan.

Story Posted:01/08/2023