When seeking comfort, reaching for a blanket is habitual. You can drape it over your shoulders and cuddle into the couch for a relaxing evening, or you can tuck yourself in for a deep night’s sleep. But some aren’t as lucky.
After a home is swept away in a severe storm, a donated blanket could be all someone has. That’s what drives the mission at Samaritan Quilt Ministry.
Using donated fabric, the volunteer-run quilting operation at Zion Lutheran Church in Glen Rock, Pennsylvania has created and weaved over 40,000 quilts throughout the past 40 years, which are later given to individuals in need around the world.
Thanks to DC Rental, an Arlington-based party equipment rental company that offers linens, fine china, glassware, flatware and furniture for events at some of the biggest venues in Washington, DC, the ministry is getting more fabric donations than ever.
DC Rental’s customized linens often make their way through presidential inaugurations, celebrity gatherings and nonprofit galas in the DMV, but fabrics of certain patterns and textures get overused or go out of style quickly, and the company is left with mountains of retired linens.
When DC Rental’s general manager, Mark Tempel, joined the company in January 2018, he knew something needed to be done. He saw two options: the company could sell the linens to be used elsewhere, or the company could donate them to local organizations.
That’s when David Tharp, a sewing machine repair technician from Pennsylvania who works with DC Rental, caught wind of the donation idea from Tempel and suggested that the company donate some of the fabric to the Samaritan Quilt Ministry.
Tharp started out by taking a few boxes of fabric to the group as a test run. The pieces were large enough to cut, arrange and sew into dozens of quilts. It was a perfect fit.
Just over a year later, he stops by DC Rental once a month to drop off boxes of retired linens to Samaritan Quilt Ministry.
The blankets and quilts made by the ministry have ended up in the hands of disaster relief victims across the country and are used to swaddle newborn babies at local hospitals. Tempel can hardly hide his excitement when he discusses it. Any time the blankets make it to someone after a natural disaster, it means even more to him.
“We could buy bulk blankets [to donate] all day long,” Tempel says. “But I have a feeling that when they receive the quilts and blankets, it’s a little more about being human. Even though you’re in a tough time, to have something nice, soft and made with love, instead of being utilitarian, can really help you get through that time.”
Tempel hopes to see DC Rental’s efforts reach beyond just the Samaritan Quilt Ministry in upcoming months as it finds more avenues for local donations. The group can only handle so much fabric at one time, and he knows there has to be more ways the company can give back.
“It blows my mind that we’re able to do this very easily by just donating an asset,” says Tempel. “We’ve donated linens to events like pancake breakfasts and church services for years, but now these [blankets] not only provide a basic need, but also a loving memory.”
Recently, some of the donated fabric was used to create costumes for the theater department at American University, and Tempel hopes it can eventually find its way into pet shelters for blankets and pillows.
“I love that the idea is filled with love and compassion. These linens are used for amazing events in some of the biggest buildings in the nation’s capital, and it didn’t feel right to throw it all away. Now the goal is to be able to find a home for all of them.”
