Employees March 11, 2010
Switching from sutures to stitches, OR group makes Smilow quilt
Members of the Perioperative Services staff are more acquainted with sutures than they are with stitches but that didn’t stop them from making a trio of quilts for Smilow Cancer Hospital.
Jeanie Cacopardo, RN, educator, Perioperative Services, and quilter, introduced her colleagues to the idea of making a quilt in January 2009. She asked for 9" squares. The only other requirement was to make the square using fabrics in the colors that represent awareness of cancers — e.g. pink represents breast cancer.
"I didn’t know if we were going to get one square or 15 — so we were delighted when we got more than 60 of them," she says. "Each was beautiful and each came from the heart." Non-quilters who wanted to contribute a square "hired" sewers to sew their design. Some squares celebrated patients who are surviving cancers and others celebrated those who had waged valiant battles with the disease.
Cacopardo assembled the quilt, using lavender — the universal color for cancer awareness — for the borders and between the squares. She then held a "tying" event in the Perioperative Services conference room and taught employees on their lunch hour how to tie the quilt to its backing with special thread. In two days, staff tied more than 240 knots, preparing it to hang on the 9th floor of Smilow.
"This quilt reflects the hope we have for the patients who come to Smilow for care," said Cacopardo. "It also celebrates the courage and strength patients bring to their fight. We hope our quilt will bring comfort to those who are or have been affected by cancer."
