April 11, 2001
Gowns offer children creative outlet
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
A soft, warm cuddle of flannel can be just the ticket for area Hospice patients.
Thanks to the combined the efforts of a local seamstress and young participants in the Munson Hospice Art Therapy Group, 14 huggable hospital gowns will be ready for future residents of the Hospice House, a project currently being developed by Munson HealthCare.
The flannel for the gowns was donated by the family of Marty Brydges, a Hospice patient who died of cancer last year. Around Christmas Ann Brydges gave a bolt of white flannel to Munson Hospice as a way to thank the Hospice staff and volunteers for their love and care during her husband's illness. She suggested that they use it to make some flannel hospital gowns, which she believed would greatly benefit other Hospice patients.
"I intended the flannel as a gift so the Hospice patients can be warm and comforted," Brydges said. "When you wear flannel, it is kind of like being embraced by that warmth."
After Brydges' donation, staff at the Munson Hospice turned to Clara Powell Parker, a seamstress who has been sewing hospital gowns for 16 years. Within a few days, she had the gowns sewed up and ready for decoration.
"I can sew four gowns in an hour," said Parker, who also makes baby blankets for the babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Munson Hospital. "I do not sew just to sew, I sew for God."
Members of the Art Therapy Group then decorated each of the hospital gowns over the next six weeks, finishing up the last one Monday evening. They covered them with designs including flowers, moons and stars and edged some with bright, decorative stitching. Hopeful rainbows spread their color over several gowns while a few others included more masculine designs of outdoor or hunting scenes.
"Some of the boys thought we should make gowns men could wear," said Barb McIntryre, an art therapy coordinator and facilitator of the group.
The Hospice Art Therapy Group is geared to children who have lost a parent or close family member to illness or an accident. The group began 15 years ago to allow young people to use art and music to express strong feelings that come from losing someone close to them. Between five and 14 youth attend the meetings, which are held every Monday evening at the former Medical Care Facility building on the Munson Hospital campus.
"This group gives them a place they can share their feelings, when they draw they are able to talk about their feelings," McIntyre said.
The project to decorate the gowns was a very empowering one for the children, McIntyre noted.
"They feel really good that they are making something for somebody," she said. "They feel that they are helping someone and one of the things kids need these days is an avenue for contribution."