For Lillian Monaco, it’s a simple task of winding yarn around a needle to create a blanket. It’s the love that’s tucked inside each crocheted 40-by-60-inch creation that warms the heart of a child.
Monaco is one of about two dozen south and southwest suburban volunteers making blankets for the local chapter of Project Linus. The national organization was founded four years ago by Karen Loucks-Baker of Denver, who had read a story about a 4-year-old who said her security blanket helped get her through chemotherapy treatments.
Today there are 175 chapters across the country, including one organized by Nancy Virene of Tinley Park and Sue Weber of Oak Forest.
“I heard about the work of Project Linus on a TV program and decided this was something I could do,” Virene recalls. “I was immediately drawn to Project Linus. There’s a good and a bad side to this. The sad part is kids are sick. The heartwarming part is we’ve got volunteers who want to help them feel better.”
Virene’s enthusiasm flowed over to Weber, a longtime friend, and the two women began the third Project Linus chapter in the Chicago area. (Others are in Oak Park and Northbrook.) In January 1997, they began advertising for volunteers in church bulletins, at bingo games, on cable television stations and anywhere else they could think of.
The idea is simple: Just like the “Peanuts” character Linus, who is never far from his trusty blanket, kids get security from something they can snuggle with and handle easily.
“We aren’t particular about the size or the color,” Virene explains. “Sometimes volunteers will do colors for the Bulls or the Bears, and those we give to the older kids.”
Blankets are delivered to Hope Children’s Hospital on the campus of Christ Hospital and Medical Center in Oak Lawn, at Ingalls Hospital’s Community Care Center in Harvey and at the Crisis Center for South Suburbia in Tinley Park.
Virene estimates the volunteers have helped more than 400 children, ranging in age from infancy to their teens. The kind of illness or family’s circumstances is not a factor.
Staff at Hope Children’s Hospital can recognize a Project Linus beneficiary in their halls.
“The kids do carry them around,” says Clare Winer, manager of child life services at Hope. “The blankets are something colorful and pretty for their stay here in intensive care. It may be the one positive remembrance that made them feel safer while they were here.
“The blankets cheer up a bed, and they make the parents feel good too,” Winer adds. “We always have the pink and blue for the babies and different colors for the older kids who get a kick out of them.”
That is just what Lillian Spiewak of Oak Lawn likes to hear. She has created more than 50 blankets for Project Linus in the last eight months.
“Any time I can’t sleep, or I go to the doctor’s office, or I’m watching television, I have my needle and yarn,” she says. “I leave a project in the car, and my spare bedroom is filled with crafts.”
Spiewak was encouraged to share her talents with Project Linus by her doctor, Dr. Warren Robinson, who told her it was for a good cause. “When he and his nurse said it was for needy children, they didn’t have to ask me twice,” she says.
Using donated yarns, Spiewak sorts the colors for various projects. She has created blankets with Bulls and Bears team colors (these can be larger than the standard 40-by-60-inch versions) and tries to have at least two in her pile of six or seven blankets for older children, and at least one specifically for a boy.
“It doesn’t matter to me if I make baby afghans or bigger blankets, and it doesn’t matter if I knit or crochet,” Spiewak explains. “Right now I’m using the last of a colored yarn as a twist to decorate the blanket. It’s whatever design moves me.”
Monaco, a resident of Hickory Hills, learned about the project through her daughter, Marilyn Kelly of Evergreen Park. Helping Project Linus is an easy way to pass time while watching television.
“I love kids,” Monaco says, “and I enjoy doing it. I sew a lot, but sewing is messy with cutting and cleaning up afterward. With crocheting, it’s just a ball of yarn and a needle.”
A label adorned with Charles Schulz’s Linus character is sewn into each finished blanket. It reads: “Made with Tender Loving Care for Project Linus.”
The home economics class at Grissom Junior High School in Tinley Park has helped sewing the labels, as have other teenagers who have volunteered as a community service project.
Most of the volunteers use their own materials, but every so often Virene will get fabric or yarns that she can pass along to her team. Monetary donations also help her continue with publicity and yarn purchases.
Not every volunteer knits or crochets, though. Some just pick up and deliver the blankets.
After reading an article about Project Linus, Patti Lynch of Oak Lawn called the Denver office to ask about volunteering. “I’ve read a lot of magazine articles, but none ever touched me like that one,” she remembers. The Denver office referred her to Virene, but Lynch wasn’t sure what she could do for the group.
“I don’t sew. I don’t even have a needle and thread,” Lynch jokes. “But I drive, so that’s what I do. I pick up from these ladies whenever they’re ready with a delivery.
“Each one is more of a dear than the next. They’re just a lovely group. That makes me lucky,” Lynch says of her new friends who share not only their handiwork but also their hearts with her.
“We are only the coordinators,” Virene says of the work she does with Weber. “Our Project Linus chapter has taken on a life of its own. The volunteers are the heart of it. They are from all walks of life. Many have become our friends now.”
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To learn more about Project Linus, call Virene at 708-532-1795.
