For a group of girls in Medford, holiday traditions go beyond receiving gifts in their own stockings for Christmas.
Members of Girl Scout and Brownie troops from the township and volunteers from Cattell’s Sew and Vac participated in a stocking sewing event for charity last week.
For six hours one afternoon, Cattell’s was stuffed with sewing machines, fabric and Scouts hoping to make the holiday season a more festive one for some families. The troops were creating homemade stockings that will later be filled and donated to the Diocese of Trenton’s Catholic Charities’ Providence House Domestic Violence Services.
Kate Gras, one of the event’s organizers, said the troops make about 200 stockings each year.
“It is a wonderful event,” Gras said. “Not only are the Girl Scouts who participate doing a service for their communities, but they are also learning the basics of sewing and having something they hand made bring a smile to the faces of someone their own age who might never have even gotten a stocking at Christmas time.”
The sewing event has become a regular program for the Scouts. It started in 2008 with Gras’ oldest daughter, Meghan, who began it as a Girl Scout Silver Award project.
The event has been taken over by Gras’ younger daughters, Erin and Bridget, as time has gone on. The Gras family organizes the troops from Medford each year. In 2010, the troops officially teamed up with Cattell’s Sew and Vac.
In addition to the participation of the Scouts, teenagers who have attended the academy at Cattell’s Sew and Vac volunteer their time to help the younger girls with their projects.
A few weeks after the stockings are made, the troops will stuff the stockings with gifts such as hats, mittens, toys and candy. The stockings are then sent to the Providence House.
The Providence House cares for many families who are victims of domestic violence and provides them with numerous services.
With a large number of clients, all gift donations that groups make throughout the holiday season are a blessing.
“We wouldn’t be able to provide our clients with holiday gifts without donations,” Rachel Johnston, the community affairs coordinator for Providence House, said.
The stockings the Scouts send go to many different clients. These are in addition to donations that are put into Providence House’s store, where clients are able to come in and pick out particular items for children.
The house also accepts single donations and will take items such as gift cards for teenagers as well.
The most important aspect of the stocking donations, however, is the joy it brings to many families and children in need.
“It really alleviates the extra stress that everyone gets around the holiday time,” Johnston said.
Johnston emphasized that Providence House is also accepting gifts donations for children, teens and moms at its Burlington County location, 950A Chester Ave., Suite 20 in Delran. Donations can be dropped off through Dec. 10.
