CALABASAS, Calif. - A national foundation that provides comfort items for abused and neglected children has received a donation of some 15,000 blankets and quilts from Latter-day Saint Humanitarian Services, thanks in part to the initiative of a stake Young Women leader in California and a local Church director of public affairs in North Carolina.
The blankets and quilts were delivered Dec. 10 to the Laura Schlessinger Foundation warehouse at Calabasas. Ms. Schlessinger, whose popular call-in talk show is heard on radio stations nationwide, was on hand to receive the donation as about 75 Church members from the Canoga Park and Thousand Oaks stakes in California put together some 7,000 "My Stuff Bags" that included the blankets, said Keith Atkinson, Church director of public affairs for California. Besides blankets and quilts, the bags include toiletries, small toys, coloring books, pencils and teddy bears.
Elder Tad Callister, Area Authority Seventy, along with Roger Brown of Church Humanitarian Services, formally presented the blankets to the foundation. Later in the day, three Church representatives were interviewed on the radio program.
The effort originated Oct. 22 when Laurel Abernethy, a Young Women personal progress leader who lives in the Vacaville 5th Ward, Vacaville California Stake, tuned into the program and heard the host lamenting that a major organization that had promised 15,000 blankets for the charity had withdrawn its offer. She asked that 15,000 of her listeners each knit, crochet or buy a blanket to contribute to make up the shortfall.
Sister Abernethy then responded by mobilizing the Young Women under her leadership to make blankets to donate service in line with their Young Women Personal Progress goals. With the donation, Sister Abernethy included a brief note explaining that if the blankets were not perfect, it was because most of the girls had never sewn before.
"Dr. Laura," as she is known to her listeners, selected the note to read on the air. In Raleigh, N.C., Randolyn Emerson, local director of public affairs for the Church, heard the broadcast. She remembered that thousands of blankets had been donated by women from throughout the Church for relief efforts in Kosovo and other locations. The proposal for donating 15,000 blankets from the Church Humanitarian Center was approved, and the donation was arranged.
"The blankets were stacked 8 feet high against six walls in three different rooms in the warehouse," Sister Emerson said.
Interviewed on the program the day of the "Stuff-a-Thon" were Sister Emerson, Sister Abernethy and Brother Brown. Ms. Schlessinger commented on the program: "I am so grateful for the Church and the members in it. Clearly, this is a religion where everybody 'walks the talk,' and I am very, very, very grateful, and we are going to meet our deadline — all these kids are going to get taken care of."