Spokane chapter of Ryan’s Case for Smiles sews its 10,000th pillowcase for children patients in area hospitals

Sometime last Thursday morning one of the nearly 60 volunteers in the gym of Trinity Baptist Church in north Spokane sewed the 10,000th pillowcase that will be donated to one of the local children’s hospitals.

The stacks of completed pillowcases on a table popped with color, designed to bring brightness to white, sterile hospital rooms. “We want to brighten rooms and make things special,” said Ryan’s Case for Smiles co-coordinator Joyce Beach.

Beach learned about the national Ryan’s Case for Smiles program in 2010 while she was with her grandson in a hospital in Michigan. He got a bright red Bart Simpson pillowcase from a local Ryan’s Case for Smiles group and loved it, Beach said.

When she got home she was inspired to start a Spokane chapter of the organization and recruited her friend, June Peck, to help. “Our first day we made pillowcases we made seven,” she said.

The kids love the brightly colored cases, which feature everything from animals to Disney characters to sports. “If you take anything else they stay in the bin,” said co-coordinator Cherry Edwards. “They want bright colors.”

The best part is seeing the smiles on everyone’s faces, Edwards said. “We have parents who tell us their child hasn’t smiled after they were admitted until they see this,” she said. “Their families appreciate it.”

Every month seven core volunteers go to Providence Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital and sew pillowcases there. Children are able to pick out their favorite design from kits of premeasured fabric. Beach makes each kit herself. “I buy the fabric, wash it, press it and cut it up,” she said.

Every September the 120 chapters of Ryan’s Case for Smiles scattered across the country hold a Miles of Pillowcase Smiles event, bringing together large groups of volunteers for a full day of sewing. The pillowcases made by Spokane volunteers will be given to Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital, Ronald McDonald House and Shriner’s Hospital.

The pillowcases are given to any child in the hospital. Many are receiving cancer treatment, but not all. The children get to take home the pillowcase they pick out.

Beach said she was thrilled that her group has made more than 10,000 pillowcases. “I realized in January that we were so close,” she said. “We’re sewing beyond that today.”

Her friend Peck that started the chapter with Beach died several years ago and wasn’t there to see the accomplishment, but Beach invited her husband, Larry Peck. “She wouldn’t believe this,” he said.

Beach writes grants and gets donations to fund fabric purchases. Women use their own sewing machines, though the group does have a handful of donated machines. Several organizations support the effort, including the Rotary Club, the Kalispel Tribe, Yoke’s and Kohl’s. Beach said she spends $9,000 a year on fabric.

“We’re very proud that we spend 100 percent of the money we raise only on fabric,” she said.

Jackie Alkier and her friend Peggy Miller were volunteering with the group for the first time last week. Miller attends Trinity Baptist Church and heard the Ryan’s Case for Smiles group was coming to the church. The two have spent every Thursday for the past 20 years quilting together, but last week they decided to sew pillowcases instead.

Miller and two other women pinned the premeasured pieces of fabric together while Alkier kept the sewing machine humming, sewing a case every 10 or 15 minutes. “I think this is fun,” Alkier said. “It’s a good project.”

She was impressed by the premeasured kits and loved how well the colors and patterns went together. “The cutting, it takes them time to do this,” she said. “Whoever prepared them did a good job.”

While Beach and Edwards said they love to do what they do because of the joy they can bring children and their families, they say it’s also a hard thing to do because not all the children make it. Since they go to the hospital every month they often see the same children several times, and there are some children that stick with them.

“Sometimes we feel sad when we leave the hospital but most of the time we feel good,” Edwards said.