It’s a wonderful time of year at Patchwork! Like many places, the holiday spirit is contagious and adds an extra special spark to everything happening around our building.
We spent the entirety of last week celebrating Christmas in the Arts & Smarts program. The kids learned to make origami Christmas trees, they crafted ornaments using clouds of glitter, they ate pizza and Christmas cookies, they sang Christmas carols, and they heard the Christmas story told by friends from Aldersgate Church. We had a wonderful display of the ceramic nativity sets that the kids made this fall. This year the kids got to take their quirky creations home to share with their families, in contrast to other years when they sold their artwork at the Holiday Art Sale.
The highlight of the festivities for many of our participants was shopping in the Christmas Store. Our staff had stocked the store with all kinds of small gifts for moms, dads, brothers, sisters, grandmas, grandpas, and other family members. Each Arts & Smarts participant had an opportunity to choose the perfect gift for up to four members of their family, then they wrapped their gifts up so they were ready for Christmas. Many thanks to Aldersgate for providing the funding for the gifts in this year’s Christmas Store!
Meanwhile, mornings at Patchwork have been festive in their own way. We kept all the Christmas decorations from the children’s program, including a fun photo backdrop showing a fireplace with a roaring fire next to decorated Christmas trees. In one really sweet moment, one of our morning guests used the backdrop to get a portrait of himself with his dog.
We’ve also enjoyed the presence of folks from The Arc of Evansville whose time here is part of a service project. They bake cookies together on Mondays and bring them to serve to our guests on Tuesdays. Our friends from The Arc are adults with disabilities. For some of Patchwork’s usual guests, interacting with people with disabilities is unexpected. It’s been affirming to see our regular guests realize that their initial perception of the folks from The Arc was wrong and to see them adjust and respond with care and new respect. The folks from The Arc have thoroughly enjoyed their time here. At the end of their first day, one woman didn’t want to leave, saying, “But I love it here!” Gail answered her, saying, “Yes. This is a place of love.”
On recent mornings, we’ve also had a bike distribution for people who need transportation, we’ve had our usual food pantry and hospitality time, we’ve had numerous calls for Nurse John, we’ve had special snacks, we’ve had visits from medical residents from Deaconess, we’ve had some extra care for tired feet, and we’ve had busy shower facilities. We’ve even had folks from the Health Department here to do STD testing—access to which is much appreciated by those seeking it out.
Our Arts & Smarts Program is finished for 2021, but our mornings will undoubtedly grow more festive in the coming weeks. Every year around Christmas it seems like there are extra cheery moments here.
Patchwork will be closed for the holidays between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day. We will be back open in the morning starting on January 3, and our Arts & Smarts program will begin again on January 4.
Christmastime is Here
