Blanketing patients in holiday cheer (video)

It’s an annual tradition that even a pandemic couldn’t stop: the making and delivering of dozens of quilts and afghan blankets for patients at Sharp Coronado Hospital’s long-term care unit.

This year was no different. Sharp Coronado Hospital Auxiliary volunteers made and delivered handmade blankets to the hospital’s patients, who gathered inside Villa Coronado’s activity room. With quilts and afghans loaded on carts, each patient chose their blanket by selecting their favorite color, pattern or design, smiling widely as the auxiliary volunteers laid it on their laps. In the distance, Sharp Coronado music therapist Haley Di Pane, MT-BC, could be heard singing cheerful holiday songs while strumming on her guitar.

The volunteers sew, knit and crochet the blankets throughout the year for this very day. They say they do it to see the happiness on the patients’ faces as they bring them a little touch of home, especially during the holidays.

Volunteer Katy Green says that she looks forward to this event each year, as it’s a way she and other volunteers can provide this unique and much-needed comfort during the holidays. Green, a retired manager of Sharp Coronado’s Emergency Department, has made nearly 130 quilts for the hospital’s long-term patients. She says it’s something her mother and grandmother also did in their lifetimes.

Last year, the volunteers made the blankets, but were unable to go inside Villa Coronado due to pandemic visitation restrictions. They relied on the hospital’s caregivers to hand the blankets out to patients. This year, hand-delivering the blankets made the event even more meaningful.

Watch the video to learn more about the annual blanket event.