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With the help of family, friends and church, a local woman recently donated more than 70 chemo care pouches to Centra Southside Community Hospital in Farmville to help provide comfort to patients going through chemotherapy for the treatment of cancer.

Resident Kim Davis, who moved to Farmville from Pennsylvania after college, said she was inspired to put the bags together in order to brighten patients’ days and give back through her business.

Davis said she’s been an ambassador for five years with Stella & Dot (S&D), a company which sells handbags and accessories, and was inspired by other friends with the company who have donated care pouches in the past to places like the Massey Cancer Center in Richmond.

“Many of our S&D ambassadors hold these drives all over the U.S,” she said.

Davis said 2021 actually marks her Third Annual Chemo Care Pouch Drive.

“I love to give back and thought it would be great if we could do this for our local friends and neighbors who are going through this kind of treatment,” she said. “Unfortunately, we all know someone who is fighting or has fought cancer. I just thought it could brighten someone’s day.”

In order to make the drive a success, Davis reached out to family and friends, including through social media, to sponsor/purchase a Stella & Dot pouf (pouch) and then used the commissions from those purchases to purchase useful items that a cancer patient might need, such as warm and fuzzy socks, lip balm, tissues, lotion, mints, ginger candies, pens and notebooks. A community member even donated some pocket-sized devotionals for the bags.

Davis said she and resident Janett Southall typically ask the Farmville Baptist Church Youth group to help fill the pouches as part of a mission night. This year, Dominoes donated pizza for the group’s bag-stuffing event. Once the bags were packed, the group prayed over them to ask for God’s blessing.

The pouches were delivered to the hospital in November, and Davis was able to far-exceed her goal of 50 pouches this year, delivering more than 70 bags.

“The staff at the oncology department is always so thankful to be able to give them out,” she said.

Davis said she’s thankful to all those who donated and helped with the event.

“I hope that this small gesture brings a little joy to those going through treatments and lets them know that our community is thinking of them.”