Lisa Porche is not able to hug all children she meets who are hospitalized with cancer or other devastating illnesses, but she comes close when she lays a warm and cozy quilt across their laps.
Porche, the owner of two local businesses—A&L Seafood Brokers, and Chocolate Fountains and More—volunteers for Baton Rouge Quilts For Kids, a nonprofit organization that transforms discontinued and unwanted fabric into quilts that comfort children in need.
“It’s extending that love and comfort. You just wrap them in your love,” Porche tells Business Report of the quilts she and other volunteers make. “It’s not a sterile hospital gown or sheet. It’s bright and colorful.”
Porche had been sewing and quilting for years when cancer hit close to home. Her mother, her daughter’s best friend and a child from her church all were diagnosed around the same time. A hospital staff person told Porche about Quilts For Kids.
“I just immediately jumped in and started doing everything I could,” she says.
The process starts with cutting strips of fabric, which are then pieced together to form the quilt top. The quilt top, a middle layer of quilt batting and a bottom layer are sandwiched together and quilted using a machine. The finished quilts are washed, dried and bagged, and each quilt takes about eight hours to construct.
“They have to be completely within regulations of what the hospital allows,” Porche says.
Each month, Porche helps to deliver about 25 quilts to patients at Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital. The packages are piled onto a wagon, which is pulled from room to room.
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