Michael Rigert

In her spare time, Thelma Vermillion sews together sock monkeys and dresses for little girls. But she often never knows where the hand-made gifts will end up.

A resident at The Seville Retirement Center in Orem, Vermillion is among nearly 30 to 40 women there who participate in a year-round humanitarian effort to create quilts, toys and clothing for impoverished children whether they live in hurricane-ravished parts of Louisiana and Texas, or in far-flung regions of the world from Angola to Zambia.

Called The Humanitarian Effort, the retirement center's efforts are part of a larger project undertaken by the LDS Church's Orem Seville Branch of the Orem Park Stake for Deseret Industries and the church's humanitarian program. The volunteers have converted the retirement center's activity room into a veritable Santa's workshop where the women sew quilts, baby blankets, and various articles of clothing. T-shirts, jackets, dresses and trousers are made from approved patterns that have neither buttons nor clasps or zippers, because such items may not be readily available to the people they're going to, Vermillion said.

Though the women have varying skills and abilities, every one does what she can, and items get transferred around the center in an assembly line process until they are completed for the twice-monthly pickups, said Teresa Hadley, a manager at The Seville. The volunteers work on various handiworks in the activity center or on their own in their individual apartments.

"I just feel like even though I'm old and there's lot of things I can't do, there's lot of things I can do," Vermillion said. "... I had boys, so I didn't make any dresses. I used to make all my own clothes."

Materials such as fabric, batting and thread are donated by stake members and the church.

Velda Peterson, 85, works on two to three quilts per day, and said the volunteers have made nearly 700 blankets in the past year. She remembers the story of one poor little girl in a foreign country who had to improvise until she received a doll.

"(She) wanted a doll so bad she had wrapped up a rock," Peterson said."We're doing this to help children who have been through a disaster."

Not all the women's hand-crafted items leave the Beehive State. Special hospital dolls they make are used by doctors at area hospitals to show children undergoing surgery the procedure they're having. Baby blankets are frequently requested by hospitals for newborns and fire and police departments to comfort child victims of tragedy, said Dora Fitch, a volunteer who makes the hair for dolls and sews T-shirts.

"Yesterday, we sent 12 to the Nephi hospital," she said.

Fitch, 94, said she participates because she feels like she's serving others.

"I think you need to remember we're all 80-years old or older," she said.

Once in a while, the women even hear back from children and families who have received their labors of love. They've gotten thank-you letters from recipients in Armenia, Mongolia and South Africa.

"They were more than thrilled to get them," Fitch said.

Hadley said the program offers residents something other than Bingo and card games and is as rewarding for them as it is for the children they help.

"It gives them purpose and self-esteem," she said. "And they visit in there and it's a good social environment."

The Seville is looking into adding woodworking tools for men at the center to sand and paint building blocks so they can also get in on the act.

Though the entire stake is involved, Hadley said proudly that the Seville Branch turns out the majority of the project's output.

"We blow everybody else out of the water," she said with a smile. "There's no comparison. They can try."

The Humanitarian Effort products made by The Seville volunteers in the past year

Quilts -- 560

Balls -- 1,605

Dolls -- 1,150

Stuff animals -- 1,127

Sock monkeys -- 376

Jackets -- 327

Hats -- 362

Hospital dolls -- 289

Burp clothes -- 36

Bibs -- 141

Slippers -- 139

Dresses -- 205

Night gowns -- 169

Trousers -- 450

T-shirts -- 82

Source: The Seville Retirement Center