One of our staff members is a Girl Scout leader, and one of her Scouts, Erika, was working on her Gold Award, the highest award given by the Girl Scouts. A variety of quilters in the QuiltWoman.com family were recruited to help. Erika's project involved Art Therapy. She led the construction of 60 "Doodle Bags" and filled them with crayons, coloring books, and a "Feel Good" booklet that she put together.
60 Doodle Bags!
The design for the Doodle Bag came from one of our designers, Jen Eskridge. A while back, she had posted on her ReannaLily Designs website a tutorial on constructing a fat quarter drawstring backpack . We remembered that and let Erika know. That took care of the need for a pattern.
Fat Quarter Drawstring Backpack
Fat Quarters were needed next. A local quilt shop donated over 50 fat quarters. The rest of the fabric came from donations from various church sewing groups. When it came time to sew the bags, Erika tapped a number of groups. One group included some QuiltWoman.com designers. Alison Vandertang and Ann Dudek joined forces with other local quilters and helped sew the Doodle Bags.
Sewing the Doodle Bags
The final contribution from the quilting community came from QuiltWoman.com. Erika needed to get her booklet published, and we just happen to be publishers. Nancy Dill, our company president and herself a former Girl Scout leader, subsidized printing of the booklets (shown below under the coloring book).
Doodle Bag Contents
The Doodle Bags were donated to the Golisano Children's Hospital at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Young patients there will use them to help make their stays a little more pleasant. It is always great to see a young lady succeed at a major project that gives back to the community. It is equally great to see the quilting community step up and help out. We've always said "Quilters are the best." This proves it! Congratulations Erika on your Gold Award. All of us quilters were glad to help!