Comfort for Small Patients:
Over the Mountain Students Promote Pillowcase Project
By Keysha Drexel
Journal editor
Two Mountain Brook High School students are encouraging other Over the Mountain students to help a local nonprofit organization meet its fundraising goal.
Freshman Hadley Hitson and senior Ryan Fredella are heading up efforts to help Angel Pillowcases raise $5,000 by Sept. 30 so the organization can participate in Children’s of Alabama’s annual Illuminations Holiday Tree program.
The Illuminations Holiday Tree program includes a display of spectacular holiday trees throughout the lobbies at Children’s of Alabama. The trees are designed by individuals, companies or organizations like Angel Pillowcases as part of the hospital’s annual Illuminations Ball fundraiser.
“We really want to participate in the holiday tree program because that will mean even more children can get the comfort of Angel Pillowcases,” Hitson said.
Angel Pillowcases was started in 2012 by Altamont students Grace Carroll and Harry Arnold.
“A pillowcase is something that most of us take for granted each night when we go to bed,” said Carroll, who is now in her sophomore year at Colby College in Waterville, Maine.
But for a hospitalized child, a pillowcase can mean the difference between feeling uncomfortable in a hospital bed and feeling more at home, Carroll said.
“Trying to bring some comfort of home to the hospital was the inspiration for Angel Pillowcases,” she said.
Carroll started sewing and donating pillowcases to Children’s of Alabama long before she teamed up with her Altamont classmate to launch Angel Pillowcases.
“Over the years, I’ve had so many parents come up to me and tell me how much the pillowcases mean to them and their child,” Carroll said. “It’s definitely something I want to continue to grow so that we can help even more families.”
Fredella said he got involved with Angel Pillowcases because he saw firsthand the comfort the brightly colored pillowcases can bring to young patients.
His younger brother, Sean Fredella, battled cancer for nearly 10 years. Sean’s battle was one of the reasons Carroll and Arnold founded Angel Pillowcases in 2012.
“Sean is cancer-free now, but I’ve seen how tough those long days and nights in the hospital can be for kids, and the pillowcases help,” Fredella said.
Angel Pillowcases cost $25 each and also help the SeanStrong Fund at Children’s to provide financial assistance to families who need help when they have a child battling cancer. The fund was inspired by Sean Fredella.
“There’s just not enough money available to help families with food or transportation when they are dealing with having a sick child in the hospital,” Fredella said. “That’s why the work being done by Angel Pillowcases for the SeanStrong Fund is so important.”
The pillowcase designs have fun motifs, including bicycles, whales, flowers and cupcakes, all in bright, vivid patterns and colors.
“When you don’t feel good, you need something that’s not only soft and comfortable but something that’s fun and gets your mind off being sick,” Hinson said.
Angel Pillowcases not only brightens the days of young hospital patients but also is helping women in Haiti create a better future for themselves and their families.
The pillowcases are exclusively made with Michael Miller Fabrics from New York and are now made through a partnership with local businesswoman Ann Piper and her husband, Doug Carpenter. The Carpenters learned about the pillowcases and saw a way to help reduce material and production costs while furthering their own initiative to help provide work for women in Haiti.
The Carpenters created Theona’s Girls after discovering Theona on a mission trip to the Caribbean nation. A seamstress, she worked in Port-au-Prince and fled to Terrier Rouge, a small rural town outside Cap-Haitien following the devastating earthquake in Port-au-Prince in 2010.
Theona decided to teach other young women how to sew and to learn a trade. The women have no electricity and use manually-operated machines.
This summer, Angel Pillowcases was granted nonprofit status, and Carroll said she and other volunteers with the organization immediately started brainstorming ways to fund its work.
“We wanted to continue our relationship with Children’s and do a major project, and so when someone suggested Illuminations, we thought it was a great idea,” Carroll said.
Carroll has to return to college in Maine this month but said she knows with the efforts of volunteers like Hitson and Fredella, Angel Pillowcases will reach its fundraising goal and be able to participate in the Illuminations Holiday Tree program this November and December.
“We are hoping to get even more students in Mountain Brook–and across the Over the Mountain area–involved in helping us raise the $5,000 we need to be able to have a tree for Illuminations,” Carroll said. “There’s still a lot of work to be done to comfort those who need comforting, and the more students we having working towards that, the better.”
For more information on how to donate to Angel Pillowcases, visit www.angelpillowcases.org.
