Stow Sunshiners Care and Share

Once a month, for seven months each year, the is transformed into a factory of sorts. Assembly lines are set up, and unpaid workers spend hours manufacturing scores of stuffed dolls and holiday favors.

The payoff for members of the Stow Sunshiners is in knowing their handiwork could bring smiles to fellow senior citizens confined to beds, as well as children facing surgery or whose family lives are in turmoil.

The Care & Share Program is but one contingent of the Stow Sunshiners, a social activities group for seniors formed about 35 years ago. While some members attend only the monthly luncheons or the four annual holiday parties, others are active in the bowling contingent or the weekly card-playing contingent.

“We’re the worker bees,” joked Thel Hileman, treasurer of the Care & Share volunteer craft group that formed about nine years ago.

Hileman said the program’s founding revolved around white cotton stuffed dolls made for patients facing surgery at Akron Children’s Hospital. Doctors there draw on the dolls with markers to show children their surgery location. The patient can then further decorate their new doll.

Originally, the “teaching dolls” were made by a circle group at a Stow church. Some Sunshiners began pitching in, and the Care & Share Program was born. “Eventually it became the project of this group, and we just spread our wings into more places and more projects,” said Hileman.

Since then, thousands of dolls have been delivered to Akron Children’s and Summit County Children’s Services. The latter group is the recipient of dolls made from brightly colored, patterned materials. Those dolls, along with new pajamas, are given to children upon intake into the system.

Care & Share members also brighten the lives of bedridden residents at . Jean Wink of Stow is in charge of dreaming up ideas for “tray favors” that are delivered with dinner to about 100 Stow-Glen residents on major holidays.

“We have a very low budget, so we try to do a lot with recycling,” said Wink.

One example is Fourth of July firecracker decorations made from toilet paper tubes. “Those were easy to gather. We got a lot of those and I still have them left over. In fact, I’ve got an abundance of those,” Wink said with a grin.

While some members were creating dolls during a recent meeting, Wink and several others were creating small dried flower arrangements in unusual containers. “They’re used communion cups from a church,” Wink explained. “After they’re washed, we glue three together to serve as vases. At Christmas, we’ll flip them over and turn them into bells.”

Ellie Smith, a Sunshiners member from Munroe Falls, is a fan of Wink’s craft projects. “She comes up with clever ideas,” said Smith, prompting Wink to lament, “I’ve almost run the gamut, though.”

Group members also make bean-bag comfort pillows for hospice patients and knit caps for chemotherapy patients.

Stow resident John Gretsinger is one of only a few men in the Care & Share program, and he’d like to see that number grow. Gretsinger has been attending the monthly work sessions for about five years with his wife, Blanche.

Asked what drives him to keep volunteering, Gretsinger said, “You retire and it’s time to give back. That’s the way we look at it.”

The Care & Share Program work sessions are held from 1 to 3 p.m. the fourth Monday of January through April and August through October at the Stow Senior Center.

The program is always in need of volunteers, as well as donations of fabric or money to purchase supplies. For details, either drop in at the April 25 gathering or call Thel Hileman at 330-688-8673.