One smile says it all

Group donates quilts to children in DSS custody
By Bethany Fuller | Statesville R&L

The group recently received a donation from a retired police officer from Virginia and his friends at Glen Allen Church of Christ.
Jim Otto, Sandy Hook, Va., resident, and his friends with Stitches for a Cause presented the Guardian Ad Litem office with 20 new quilts for children in the program, with the promise of more to come as needed.
“All these quilts were made with a lot of love,” Otto said. “They can wrap themselves in it.”
Guardian Ad Litem District Administrator Donna Carver said sometimes the children come into foster care with little more than the clothes on their backs.
The quilts come in all shapes and sizes and will have the children’s names embroidered on them, Carver said. This way, they will have something cheerful to take with them.
The average case in Iredell County lasts 315 days, and the average time for a child to get adopted is 695 days, Carver said.
Some children have been in the system for six or seven years, she said.
Otto said his 40 years in law enforcement showed him the difference even a small gesture can make in children’s lives when they are put in a hard situation.
“There is a lot of pain out there, especially this time of the year,” he said. “You can put a smile on their faces and that is what we try to do.”
The program is something the group has wanted to do for some time, but didn’t know how to get it started, Carver said.
“When you go in to a home and visit a child, it is like they have nothing,” she said. “It hurts your heart.”
Otto, whose daughter Vicki Culbreth is volunteer with the program, said the group will make as many quilts as necessary.
The Guardian Ad Litem volunteers will try to match the blankets with the child’s personality, Carver said.
In addition to quilts, Stitches for a Cause makes wheelchair and walker bags and other Christmas items to donate to nursing homes and churches.