Dignity Bibs for Our Patients at Stansell House

Wewere fortunate enough to see what an army it takes to produce 100 “Dignity Bibs” for our Coastal Hospice patients at the Macky & Pam Stansell House.

Quilters by the Sea Guild of Ocean Pines Maryland dedicated their volunteer day to the request made by Maggie Miller, Coastal Hospice Volunteer and Lead of the Coastal Hospice Knitting and Crochet Group. “She asked if we would be willing to help make patient feeding protectors for their patients. Our response — YES WE CAN!” said, Jacqui Santangelo, Quilters by the Sea Guild President. Together, these organized, motivated, cheerful, and talented volunteers got the job done and fast!

Shout out to local community members and volunteers from both groups who donated hand towels to make this a successful collaboration. The amazing organizational skills by Stephanie Dilworth and JoAnne Donnelly who delved into the huge donation of fabric inventory to match the right fabric with the hand towels to make kits ready to go, and to Robin Mower, Guilders Vice President for coming up with the most productive way to assemble the Dignity Bibs. Every station was clearly marked with instructions for the dedicated volunteers to get to work!

What are dignity bibs? A dignity big is a patient feeding protector made out of a terry cloth hand towel, sewn to a fabric yoke and secured around the patient’s neck with a snap or with Velcro. They are used by the staff at Coastal Hospice to allow patients the ability to feed themselves, regardless of their abilities, while protecting the patient’s clothes from food spills. It’s important to allow patients to be as independent as possible while they perform activities of daily living and these dignity bibs do the trick!