Quilts help ease anxiety

• By KAREN MARTIN
• Assistant People editor
• Published: Jun 28, 2009 - Page: 1D

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Last year, Judy Holley served on a jury that convicted a man who had killed several people. Some children saw the killings happen.
That got her thinking about helping youngsters who experience such trauma, and she wanted to help.

A quilter for almost 40 years and founder of a local quilting group, Holley got in touch with Dr. Marsha Norton, director of children’s services at the Baton Rouge Crisis Intervention Center.

“She offered us these quilts,” said Norton, who at first wasn’t sure what to do with them. “But the more we talked, I realized they would work with our relaxation exercises.”

Norton said youngsters who experience the death of a loved one from homicide, suicide or traumatic accident, often suffer from severe anxiety and fear.

“Going to sleep at night is such a hard thing for them,” Norton said.

Holley’s group gave the center about a dozen quilts last year, and the center’s counselors used them in teaching the youngsters relaxation exercises and guided imagery to help them get over their fears.

“We teach them to lay quiet, to relax their body, to clear their mind and to create a safe place for themselves,” Norton said.

“They can create a safe place on that quilt.”

This year, Holley and her group of merry quilters, better known as The Wasted Women’s Bee, are again helping the center.

They, with the help of Cajun Country Quilters, have stitched up more than 50 quilts to be given to youngsters ages 4 to 16 who will attend the center’s Camp Chrysalis on July 17. At the one-day camp, the youngsters get to meet others like themselves and participate in all sorts of fun activities.

Hopefully, the quilts will remind the children that others care about them, Holley said, pointing out the label on each quilt which notes it is “made with love” as a “treasured memory just for you.”

Norton said the quilts “just mean everything in the world” to the youngsters.

“They take the quilts home and they become a safe place for them,” she said. “It’s more than just a beautiful quilt. It’s a huge gift to have these quilts for these children.”