The Staff Advisory Council (SAC) once again will be collecting and making items to donate to Cleveland homeless shelters.
For the fifth straight year, SAC members Kathleen Dowdell and Kathleen O’Linn are spearheading the collection of warm winter items for homeless men to donate to the Care Alliance Health Center. Hats, scarves, socks and gloves will be collected at the SAC table at the benefits fair, Nov. 6-7.
Donations also will be accepted at the Department of Anthropology in Mather Memorial Building, Room 238, to Kathleen Dowdell, or at the nursing school’s first floor reception desk (care of Kathleen O’Linn).
Building on this work, a needlework group led by SAC vice-chair Brinn Omebegho, was started in March 2013 to make hats and scarves for the homeless. The membership of this dedicated and diverse group includes Carol Bennett, Helene Bernstein, Eileen Billey, Dorothy Canepari, Jennifer Cenker, Karen Fishbaugh-Cummings, Nancy Koneval, Sheryl Williams, Ana Zeba, and Stephanie Zmina, representing departments and schools across campus.
Initial donations of yarn were received from the Pat Catan’s store in Parma, with the South Euclid branch of Huntington Bank contributing tote bags. Members have also donated from their own stores of yarn. Although the needlework group will be pausing for the upcoming holiday season, their activities will resume in 2014. There are a number of new projects in the planning stages, including making items for children and a “quilt of squares.” Brinn notes that, “While currently based in the Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology at the School of Medicine, it would be awesome to expand and form groups in other areas of the campus—we are fortunate that the Case community has a big heart and much creative talent.”
Donations of yarn and money also will be accepted as well as store coupons from craft stores like Pat Catan’s, JoAnn Fabrics or Michaels.
Clothing donations will be accepted through Dec. 18.
For more information on the collection or to join the group leading the effort, contact Brinn Omabegho at brinn@case.edu.
For more information about these programs and more activities going on at the Staff Advisory Council, stop by the SAC table at the benefits fair, or visit case.edu/sac/.