Reprinted with permission
By Laura Knowles, Lititz Record
Copyright (c) 2025 Lititz Record, Edition 5/8/2025, p. A03
For a group of women from Moravian Manor Communities, wrapping the world in the warmth of a comforter has become their mission.
The Stitching for Hope Project was started by Phyllis Stuckey nearly three years ago, with some 50 women from Moravian Manor and Warwick Woodlands. She began with just a handful of women and the numbers continue to grow.
“As word spread, more women wanted to help,” said Stuckey. “The first year, we had about 12 women. The next year, there were 26 women participating and completing 24 comforters. Then last year, nearly 50 women made 46 comforters. Since then, more women are asking to be included.”
The beautifully stitched comforters will be sent to various places in the world, where people are facing war, poverty, and trauma. They are being sent through the Mennonite Central Committee to places where comfort is needed in difficult times.
One of those places is Ukraine, where communities have been ripped apart by the invasion of Russia more than three years ago. The people of Ukraine have dealt with cold winters, towns turned into battlefields, and bombings of schools and hospitals.
“The people in refugee camps and facing wars need the comfort of a comforter. It lets them know someone cares about them,” said Stuckey.
The idea began more than 10 years ago when she and her husband Keith were part of a committee that sponsored a refugee family from Syria.
“Hearing their stories of fleeing their homeland amid gunfire and chaos broke our hearts,” recalled Stuckey. “They shared their stories of seeing friends killed, homes destroyed, and gunfire ringing out as they struggled to escape.”
Then in 2022, Stuckey and her five siblings from all over the U.S. gathered in Lithuania, where one of her brothers was on the board of Lithuania Christian University and another brother was teaching Peace and Social Justice courses there for a semester. They decided to make it a family reunion, with six siblings and their spouses.
While they were in Lithuania, the Ukraine-Russia War had just broken out. They had the opportunity to meet five students at the university. Two were from Ukraine and one was from Russia. The students shared their dreams of graduating and returning home to help restore peace in their homelands.
It made an impression on Stuckey, as she met more people who were facing the trauma of having loved ones in war-torn countries.
“That trip made me feel helpless,” she said. “Then I realized there was something I could do. I could make comforters for the Mennonite Central Committee that would be sent to refugee camps. I could put my sewing skills to work to help provide comfort.”
She discovered that many women from Moravian Manor Communities shared her desire to help those in need. With the growing interest, the Stitching for Hope Project was born. They created a non-profit organization that would allow them to accept donations to support the project, able to purchase fabric and materials to go into the comforters.
Many of the women expressed regret that they no longer had their sewing machines. That’s when Stuckey reached out to Hinkletown Sewing to see if they had any machines they could donate.
“Without hesitation, the woman I spoke with said ‘Yes, how many do you need? Five? Six?’” said Stuckey.
She has been gratified to meet others who want to help. While shopping at JoAnn Fabrics in 2024, she met others who joined the cause. She met another woman at yoga class who wanted to help.
Still hoping to find a place at Moravian Manor where the group can make the comforters, they were able to make arrangements at Forest Hills Mennonite Church in Leola to use a large craft room. Several women from the church expressed their interest in helping with the knotting process. Now a group of six to 12 Forest Hills church members knot comforters for the project.
