A Warming Remembrance

Published 5:12 pm Thursday, April 4, 2013

FARMVILLE – They come in a multitude of hues, textures and designs.

Some are simply blankets.

But there's also afghans and throws neatly packed in the storage bins at Pregnancy Support Center of Southside Virginia. It's a beautiful display of creativity and hard work-all joined by the common thread that one day soon they will warm a new arrival to the world.

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“Let me tell you, the women that come in here love these quilts,” offers Center Director Cheryl Gowin as she meets with Paddy Kernisky and Bonnie Toth on a rainy Friday morning at the center's new West Third Street location.

While there are three here today, this work, this undertaking, is a broader community circle spanning a region that includes Farmville and the Central Virginia Cluster of Catholic Churches and Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church in Appomattox to a label maker in Phenix.

Each of the blankets has a tag with a name, date of birth and Newtown, CT stitched on-serving not only a functional purpose for newborns, but also as a memorial to all of those who tragically lost their lives in the deadly Newtown, Connecticut elementary school shooting last December.

“…It didn't come to me right away but I just…kept thinking about it,” reflected Kernisky, who got the project rolling. “And then I have so many friends that crochet…knit…quilt… and so I started with my friends.”

Her first five calls netted promises for seven blankets. And Kernisky had two lap robes to chip in herself, which brought the total up to nine-but still a ways to go before reaching the goal of 26, or the number of victims that lost their lives in the tragic shooting.

Then she called her friend Bonnie Toth.

Toth started crocheting years ago just to make them and it became a ministry. God, she explains, always finds a place for them to be. She crochets in front of the TV, which she says with a laugh, keeps her hands out of the potato chip bag. Each takes probably a couple of weeks to make.

Typically, Toth's works go for newborns (someone who knows someone who's expecting), but when Paddy called, it just so happens Toth, who attends Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church in Appomattox, had a bunch on hand. She had taken a stack of her work to the craft sale at church, with plans to donate what she received to the church contingency fund.

But she sold only one to a crafter who ordered two more.

Leaving Toth with quite a collection on hand when Kernisky called.

“That's why they didn't sell because they were destined for here. So…to me, again, that's proof positive they're where they needed to be,” Toth said.

Add 14 more to the total.

Anthony Wm. Morris, Pastor of St. Theresa's Parish in Farmville and the Central Virginia Cluster of Catholic Churches, had a notice published in four area church bulletins.

The circle grew still more as volunteers joined in with donated material, work and blankets. Labels with the names carefully sewn were added honoring each of “God's Angel”s.

Sandy Hook has been warmly embraced by communities across the county and encouraged those who wanted to give to look to their own communities to see who needs help.

So the blankets, rather than going to Connecticut as Kernisky had planned-per the suggestion of Pastor Morris-will help families here.

Still, she plans to send a couple of editions of The Herald to the community.

Kernisky explains, “I want them to know that they're remembered…we still think about them, we still cry over this, we still pray over this.”

The Pregnancy Center will make the blankets available to participants in the “Earn While You Learn” program.

The “Earn While You Learn” program aims to meet the specific needs of moms and dads.

The project, Kernisky feels, was divinely inspired.

“I think it was,” she said. “You know God, the…Holy Spirit inspired me to do this and then…our priest was so supportive…”

And, as long as the blankets and the labels warm their new families, the victims of Sandy Hook will be remembered.