TAYLORVILLE — Handmade baby quilts and hand-knit and crocheted baby covers are on their way to Haiti to help the smallest of victims in the aftermath of last year’s earthquake in the island nation.
For a number of years, Mary Crivello has made prayer shawls and given them to people hospitalized or homebound with health problems.
Learning about the tragic events in Haiti, and the suffering that continues there, Crivello set about doing what she could to help. She formed a ministry she calls “Love At Work,” and asked others to help her. “I’ve been making crib covers for the babies in Haiti,” says Crivello. “I know that it is hot in Haiti, but I think babies there need some sort of a cover. I’ve sent 27 over already.”
Vicki Compton, director of the diocesan Office for the Missions, says light-weight covers sometimes are needed in Haiti. Compton spent two years as a missionary in Haiti, moving there when her daughter was just 3. “In the winter it does cool down, especially in the mountainous regions, where it gets very chilly at night,” says Compton.
She commended Crivello’s desire to be of help to people in Haiti. “All of us are called to global solidarity. It is a part of our baptismal call to be missionaries, because we are baptized into a missionary church. Some of us serve the missions by going, and some of serve the missions by using our gifts and talents at home.”
Crevello placed a notice in her parish bulletin, St. Mary Church in Taylorville, and a notice in the bulletin at Ss. James and Patrick Parish in Decatur, asking men and women who would like to volunteer their time in knitting, crocheting, or quilting 42 inches by 52 inches baby crib covers to call her.
She called Father Delix Michel, a Haitian priest, who is parochial administrator of Ss. Peter and Paul Church in Alton. Pointing out to him, “there are a lot of Crivellos around Alton, and I’m one of them.” She told him her plan. “You get enough made and send them to me and I will either take them to Haiti myself, or I will ship them there,” Father Michel said.
Crivello enlisted the pastor of the Edinburg United Methodist Church, whose mother lives near Alton, to take the finished quilts with him when he visits his mother.
“They brought me over 10 quilted crib covers from Decatur, and now have another two to give me,” says Crivello. Then someone from Kincaid brought her six more.
“It has been like our Lord is holding his arms out. People have been giving me material to use. My doctor in Taylorville gave me $50 and told me to go open a ‘Yards for Haiti’ bank account.
“They just need everything there (in Haiti). It is going to be a long time before Haiti gets back to where it was, let alone gets better.”
To learn more about “Love at Work,” contact Crivello at (217) 824-3582. To inquire about other things you might do for the people of Haiti, contact Compton at (217) 698-8500, ext. 120.