Assistance League of Albuquerque is a nonprofit organization that’s fully staffed by volunteers. The community work that they do ranges from the youngest in need to the elderly that need assistance through eight philanthropic programs.
One of their programs, Tender Loving Care provides receiving blankets, quilts, and knitted chemo caps to the University of New Mexico Hospital. Volunteers Shirley Daugherty, Caryl Ann Gutheninz, and Pam Verstyman of Assistance League of Albuquerque visit the set to discuss the Tender Loving Care program.
Volunteers put in thousands of hours making handmade and knitted items to soften the difficulties some newborns and cancer patients are faced with. Around 2,000 items are donated each year to the hospital.
From 2017 to 2018, 42 women donated 6,344 hours to create handmade items for 1,848 pediatric and adult cancer patients at UNMH.
“I used to be a knitter in college, gave it all up when you started teaching and having kids and that kind of thing, I stopped. And then I joined the League and I was approached and I thought, ‘oh I can do this’ and I love it,” said Pam. “You get great responses when people find out what you’re doing so it makes me feel good too.”
