Essentials, comfort help kids in transition

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By Jody Ferres | Thursday, December 21, 2006 11:36 PM CST | () comments

Larry Fisher/QUAD-CITY TIMES Louise Malik, left, and Millie Meador fill Bags of Love with homemade quilts, toys and other items for children who have been removed from homes because of abuse or drug use by parents.

Louise Malik never dreamed that recovering from surgery a year ago would change her life.

Cooped up with nothing to do during January, Malik thought she might have to resort to watching television.

“I just didn’t know what I was going to do,” she said, until a program on the Three Angels Broadcasting Network caught her attention.

Barbara Neher, a Kentucky native, was on the faith-based TV network, telling about Bags of Love, It’s My Very Own. The program gives children displaced from their home by methamphetamines, through use or manufacturing, a bag of essentials and comfort items to begin the sometimes-scary process of foster care or staying with someone besides their parents.

(Meth, as the drug is known, is an illegal, highly addictive stimulant that is sometimes “cooked” in home laboratories, and its manufacture is dangerous because it uses flammable and corrosive chemicals.)

Included in the bag are toothbrushes, soap, shampoo, a stuffed animal to dry tears on, two unopened toys and, most importantly, a handmade quilt and bag that come hand-stitched and full of love. Children from birth to 18 years old receive the bags shortly after a social worker and/or police officer removes them from their home.

Bags of Love caught Malik’s attention because it combined two of her favorite things: sewing and children.

“I thought, ‘Oh, God, this is what I’m supposed to do!’ It was just too perfect,” she said. “It takes a village to raise a child. We can’t not look at what’s going on around us.”

Malik quickly turned her modest west Davenport home into an assembly line. First, she moved herself and her husband, Dennis, from their master bedroom to a smaller bedroom on the main floor.

“I needed the biggest bedroom in the house,” she said, noting the large craft table in the middle of the room. With dozens of stuffed animals sitting in every

nook and cranny and several half-sewn quilts in piles, every inch of the bedroom is consumed by Bags of Love.

From Nemo prints to football patterns, Malik’s craft room has bins full of fabric just waiting to be sewn together.

She said the two most important aspects of the collection process are getting unopened toys and handmade quilts.

“Handmade is an absolute must. It shows love and that someone really does care about them,” she said. “We tell our kids not to go with strangers and these poor children don’t know the adults they’re going with. Hopefully it will help take the pain away of losing their parents.”

Neher established the program in 2004 after her own grandchildren were removed from the custody of their mother, Neher’s daughter, because of her meth use. The retired, 70-year old Kentucky woman has seen her idea grow from her living room to 41 chapters and inquiries from 38 states and 11 countries.

“It hit me like a ton of bricks that something had to be done,” said Neher, who works out of her home to get manuals sent to people around the world who are helping with the cause. “There was a myriad of miracles that helped me get the program started from the ground up.”

One of the backbones to the organization is the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Many of the chapters were founded by its members. Malik pointed out, though, that she’s getting help from total strangers.

“I was at Toys R Us buying a stick pony for my grandchild and I started talking to a lady behind me in the checkout line,” she said. “She said she had about 150 new stuffed animals to get rid of. She gave them to me and is also collecting stuff at the Arsenal, where she works.”

Beginning in January, she will have a little more help from the Mississippi Valley Quilter’s Guild.

“I really pushed the idea of helping the children. They need to see that someone cares for them,” guild president Donna Lanman said. Lanman met Malik at NorthPark Mall during National Quilting Day in March. From there, the two women began talking about how each could help the other.

“It’s a great partnership. Its very gratifying promoting your craft and helping the children,” Lanman said.

And its a big help to Malik, who hopes to have bags constantly in supply at Scott County social services next year.

“I’m not rich. I can’t do it by myself,” she said. “I just pick up a few things every time I go to the store or things that are on clearance.”

Added Malik, “It’s a very big project for one person, actually quite impossible. It won’t move as fast as it should. The legal process takes a long time. We want the children to have something that is theirs. When you’re dealing with children’s emotions, it’s very difficult.”

Contact the city desk at (563) 383-2245 or newsroom@qctimes.com.

Bags of love

Anyone who would like to donate items or their time to Bags of Love, It’s My Very Own can contact Louise Malik at (563) 391-5233 or (563) 676-6037. Needed are personal items, journals, pens, coloring books, new toys, fabric and handmade quilts.