St. Joseph the Worker Parish's youth service project offers warmth and comfort to the sick

Intermountain Catholic

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Members of the St. Joseph the Worker youth group make blankets to donate to patients at Primary Children's Medical Center.

WEST JORDAN — On Nov. 6, piles of brightly colored fleece and bins of scissors adorned tabletops at St. Joseph the Worker Parish’s Sr. Fabian Hall. Amid conversation and laughter, more than 20 youth and adult volunteers dived right in to transforming donated fabric into soft, cozy blankets that will brighten the lives of patients at Primary Children’s Medical Center.

The service night was the kickoff for the youth group’s annual big service project. Last year the group filled purses with hygiene items and personal notes for women at the battered women’s shelter. This year, the blankets, along with other donated items to round out the care packages, will be delivered to Primary Children’s sometime before Christmas.

The youth group, which was formed 18 months ago, meets the first Monday of every month, and youth ages 11 to 17 can participate. Melissa Castellano, Director of Religious Education at St. Joseph’s, said that they are a good group of kids. “Every month they request a service project, and we try to find them,” she said.

Castellano’s daughter Isabelle proposed a service project for Primary Children’s Medical Center this year. Jessica Burns, another parish youth, also came to Castellano independently with the same idea, because it’s a concern close to her heart. Burns’ sister was in and out of Primary Children’s with kidney failure and heart disease, and the care packages her family received during that time always helped them, Burns said.

Why blankets? “It’s starting to get colder and we thought that fleece quilts would be warmer and more comfortable than hospital blankets,” Burns said.

While the youth want to deliver the blankets in person, Primary Children’s has stringent guidelines that make that difficult, so Castellano is looking for other organizations that could use the extra blankets and donated items, and the youth can take the items to them personally, she said. In this way the service project can help more than the patients at one hospital.

To create the blankets, almost two dozen people either wielded scissors or tied knots throughout the night on Nov. 6, and before long bright and cheerful blankets began to pile up. Among the workers was youth group member Dimitri Varley, had done service projects before, but not for Primary Children’s.

“It’s for a good cause and fun too,” he said.  

Angie Lopez, one of the mothers who volunteered alongside her daughters, loves that the group does service projects. “It’s a good way for the kids to come together and give things to people who need them more than they do,” she said, adding that she hopes it’s fostering friendships at the same time.

St. Joseph the Worker pastor Father Javier Virgen also attended, with a quick smile and encouraging words for all the volunteers. He said that the youth group is a real blessing for the parish and that it’s important to bring kids together. “It brings unity among the kids,” he added.  “They’re learning to work as a team and are showing their faith to people in need.”

As for the kids themselves, they enjoy the youth group and the chance to do service.

“It’s fun,” said Mackenzie Lopez, and her sister Josheanna Mortensen said she loves it.

Burns also enjoys coming to the youth group. “It’s full of great kids and everyone’s always willing to help,” she said.  

And with this service project, that willingness to help will bless others.