Bay Area organization helping sick children feel better with pillow cases

PLANT CITY, Fla. - Volunteers with a local organization are helping make a child's stay at the hospital a less scary experience.

An army of volunteers are hard at work at Inspire, Quilting & Sewing in Plant City. They're making pillow cases to cheer up sick children in Bay Area hospitals. 

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"Something as simple as a colorful pillowcase, maybe with a child's favorite character on it, or maybe with the child's favorite superhero on it can bring a smile to that child's face," Jamie Hendrickx, Chapter Coordinator for Tampa Bay Ryan's Cases for Smiles said.

The volunteers are helping a local non-profit organization called Ryan's Cases for Smiles. They have handed out more than 200,000 pillow cases in 14 years to children in the hospital. Lynn Haberl owns Inspire, Quilting & Sewing fabrics store.

"As a store owner, this is something that I can do to give back," explained Lynn. "We're always looking for ways to give back. We can't give too much to the community. So this is what we do here." 

Kathryn Messerschmidt has a very special connection with the children because she had a son in the hospital years ago.

"I had a child who was very ill and in the hospital for months at a time. We didn't do this then. He's 38 now. But it's just, I remember how dull and depressing and scary the hospital was," she shared. 

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And now this effort is helping to brighten the children's day.

"We can help them smile. We can give them that better attitude, which will then help them heal better in the hospital," Hendrickx said.

Showing love and compassion to help sick children feel better is the organization's goal. They reached their September goal of more than 5,000 pillow cases.

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