The Quiet Dell Community Educational Outreach Service club covers almost as much territory as Santa Claus as members scour the eastern seaboard in search of enough material to make about 100 Christmas stockings.

 

Those stockings were delivered recently to the staff at United Hospital Center so that babies born between December 1 and Christmas Day are wrapped up in the holiday spirit.

 

“We have hunted all over West Virginia, Virginia, and Maryland to get all of the material,” said Quiet Dell CEOS president Elwanda Dennison. “It takes a lot of material, but we are glad to do it.”

 

Members of the Quiet Dell club, along wi a few volunteers from other Harrison County CEOS clubs, gather during the year to handcraft those red flannel stockings. The Christmas stockings are designed in such a manner to allow the baby to fit comfortably inside in much the same way as if they were wrapped inside a blanket.

 

The Quiet Dell club has been providing the stockings to the hospital for about five years, and its members had joined with another Harrison County CEOS club in this service project for several years prior.

 

More than 70 yards of material is needed annually for the project, which sends the club members scurrying to find the best deals on the red flannel. The club even has family members and friends searching stores in their hometowns to find the best deals. The UHC auxiliary partners with the club to help with this annual effort.

 

“We try to find the best sales,” Dennison said. “My daughter once bought out all of the red material a store had.”

 

The Quiet Dell CEOS club is one of 20 Community Educational Outreach Service clubs in Harrison County. For more information about joining the Quiet Dell club or any of the other clubs, contact the West Virginia University Extension Office in Harrison County at 304-624-8650.

 

Programs and activities offered by the WVU Extension Service are available to all persons without regard to race, color, sex, disability, religion, age, veteran status, political beliefs, sexual orientation, national origin, and marital or family status. When registering for programs, please designate any special access or dietary needs at least three weeks prior to the event. The information given herein is supplied with the understanding that no discrimination is intended and no endorsement by the Cooperative Extension Service is implied.

 

PICTURED: The Quiet Dell Community Educational Outreach Service club crafted 100 Christmas stockings that will be given to newborn babies and their families during the month of December. Kneeling in the front are April Bostic (left) and Shannon Harvey. In the back, from left to right, are Lyda Lister, Elwanda Dennison, Diane Miles, Jessica Smith, Tammy Heater, Janelle Alkire, and Dr. Matthew Honaker.