If anyone has received a pajama pack, love worm or donation from the Lions Club and Covered with Love, please contact Corrine Thiel at 706-296-1274 to share your story or inquire about how to make a difference.
For Corrine Thiel, working with the Oglethorpe County Lions Club to donate to pediatric patients at Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center is deeply personal.
Thiel’s grandson, Alexander, was diagnosed with kidney cancer at age six. After his kidney was removed, Alexander underwent a brutal bout of radiation and chemotherapy treatments at a hospital in Chattanooga, Tennessee, losing his hair and nearly a third of his body weight.
As he was poked and prodded by child cancer specialists, nurses showered Thiel’s grandson with heaps of toys.
“Are we gonna have to pay for all these toys?” Thiel asked.
“Honey, you don’t pay for anything,” a nurse said. “This is all donated.”
Now 21, Alexander is a senior at the University of New Mexico.
Inspired by her grandson’s experience — and by the approximately 15,000 children and adolescents in the U.S. diagnosed with cancer each year — Thiel set out to give back to pediatric wards through the Oglethorpe County Lions Club.
The club, chartered in 2013, has partnered with Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center for the past decade.
Members of the club assemble what they call “pajama packs” for pediatric patients. Each care package includes a pair of children’s pajamas, socks and underwear, along with a note that reads, “We have prepared a change for you.”
“It’s only a pair of pajamas and some socks and some underwear,” Thiel said. “But I’ve been told by some of the parents who got them that they didn’t know what they would do if they didn’t get that.”
In 2023, Thiel and the Lions Club reached out to Virginia Sanders, founder of Covered with Love, a yarn and crochet club with more than 30 members. The partnership has blossomed, allowing the two organizations to make one of their largest donations in December.
The Lions Club donated more than 200 pajama packs, while Covered with Love gave 62 handmade afghan blankets, 300 hats and 300 “love worms” to Piedmont Athens Regional.
The groups plan to make another donation in February.
“We would have not been introduced to Piedmont had it not been for the Lions Club,” Sanders said. “We just kind of help support each other with it, and we’re growing each year.”
Covered with Love, which typically meets on the first Thursday and third Saturday of each month at Lexington Baptist Church, began in 2016 making afghans for Quiet Oaks Health Center. Since then, donations have made their way to Meals on Wheels, Lexington Baptist Church, the Oglethorpe County Sheriff’s Office and more.
Sanders, who teaches all new members how to crochet, described Covered with Love as an “outreach to women to lift them up, encourage them and teach them.”
“We have a good support group with us,” Sanders said. “We’ve made really good friends.”
Peggy Spencer, an event organizer for the Caleb Club, also took part in December’s donation.
“It was nice to meet people from Piedmont to see who you’re actually working with,” Spencer said.
Thiel said she has been moved by the impact of every donation, but one moment stands out.
As a 23-month-old girl was preparing to leave the hospital, she soiled her only pair of clothes. A nurse brought her a pajama pack, and the girl exclaimed, “Oh, pretty, Mommy, pretty!”
The girl's mother later told Thiel she “was so grateful that she was able to get something from the Lions Club.”
“It makes me tear up because we actually make a difference,” Thiel said. “It’s enough to justify 10 years of giving to me.”
A pair of children's pajamas can cost around $37, however, Thiel has mastered the art of nabbing deals, often paying no more than $14 per pair. All the purchases — from pajamas to yarn and other donation supplies — come straight from the pockets of Lions Club and Covered with Love members.
The Lions Club and Covered with Love don’t just donate during the holiday season, they give back to the community all year long, donating to the hospital multiple times.
“I say the Lord is good, but I also say that people are good. I never am ready to write off the human race,” Thiel said. “That’s why I, as the leader of the Lions Club, I do encourage us to continue to make that donation, because I know what life changes it makes.”