Village of East Williston Trustee Caroline DeBenedittis has started a village initiative to create colorful pillowcases for pediatric cancer patients.
DeBenedittis said her work with a group of East Williston women began in April after she learned through a friend about the work of ConKerr Cancer, a national organizations that aids children with cancer, in making and donating pillowcases to Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, the Cohen Children’s Center at North Shore-LIJ in New Hyde Park and other New York area hospitals.
“When I found out they were going to local hospitals, I definitely wanted to get involved,” said DeBenedittis, an experienced seamstress.
DeBenedittis said she first asked her fellow East Williston Village Board members if she could use the second floor meeting room in Village Hall to convene the charitable sewing circle.
Her fellow trustees, she said, embraced the cause and she put out a flyer around the village soliciting sewers and cutters and explaining the purpose.
“The objective is for children to have a smile on their face when they’re undergoing cancer treatments in the hospital,” DeBenedittis said.
In the two six-hour sewing sessions the groups has held thus far, DeBenedittis said they’ve produced 145 pillowcases.
ConKerr provides fabric for the main part of the pillowcase decorated with cartoon characters such as Winnie the Pooh, dogs, athletes, princesses, and fairies, she said.
DeBenedittis said she approached Lee Silberman, vice president of DuraLee Fabrics in Bayshore, for border material for the pillowcases and obtained more than 100 yards of material. Local tag sale specialist Tracy Jordan also provided two large donations of border material.
DeBenedittis said she has a core group of volunteers she’s looking to expand.
“Now I have a list of a dozen women who will come to those sessions,” she said.
For an upcoming sewing session next month, she’s putting a notice on the Village of East Williston Web site and the village e-mail blasts. She said the next session to work on the pillowcases is scheduled for Aug. 21 at 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. in Village Hall. The group will be making pillowcases with a Halloween theme, she said. She said anyone who wants to help in the effort can also work at home.
“Some people who cannot come that day will come for fabric and do it in their own homes,” DeBenedittis said.
East Williston resident Lisa Adamo, whose sister is a regional coordinator for ConKerr Cancer, washes the pillowcases in a special hypoallergenic detergent, irons them and places them in zip lock bags before they’re sent to pediatric cancer wards.
“Caroline’s group has been tremendous in helping the effort,” said Samantha Bunster, Long Island coordinator for ConKerr.
Bunster said local sewing groups liked the one in East Williston are vital to ConKerr’s mission. She said ConKerr’s regional Long Island branch donates 200 homemade pillowcases to Winthrop, and the Cohen Children’s Center, as well as the New York Hospital of Queens, the Stony Brook Pediatric Cancer Center and Sloan Kettering Memorial on a bimonthly basis.
ConKerr, she said, was started several years ago by Cindy Kerr, a Pennsylvania mother whose son was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia and ultimately died from the disease.
Over the past six years, ConKerr has delivered more than 670,000 pillowcases made by volunteers to 250 hospitals throughout the country, according to its Web site www.conkerrcancer.org.
DeBenedittis hopes to continue to generate momentum locally for what she sees as a long-term charitable effort.
“I would like to do it as long as I can,” she said.
