Volunteers from Maranatha Church of God and the Word of Life churches crocheted 154 lap-cover blankets to the residents of Woodridge Nursing and Rehabilitation and Hacienda Oaks at Beeville earlier this week.

“It is so awesome to see the looks on the people’s faces,” said Louise Chaney, a member of Maranatha Church of God and one of those who helped make the lap-covers and shawls delivered to Woodridge on Monday. “It just makes their Christmas brighter.”

Chaney said that the idea to bring the blankets came to her about two years ago.

“Something happened to me two years when we delivered shawls to the ladies (at Woodridge),” she said. “There were men in here and they received nothing.

“It tore at me and I had to do something.”

Chaney and five other ladies crocheted the blankets for everyone at both nursing homes.

“Like our pastor’s wife (Brinda Drewry), she has gone through breast cancer,” Chaney said. “She is a survivor and she too has taken time to make some of these lap-covers so their Christmas would be a little brighter.”

On Friday, the volunteers were at Hacienda Oaks delivering the blankets to those residents.

“We wanted to do something we love to do and we wanted to give back,” she said. “God gives us a blessing that needs to be shared.”

Others who helped make the lap-covers and shawls were: Aurora Montiel, Cathy Gilwreath, all of Maranatha, and Christie Davis and Dorothy Henry, both of Word of Life.