DIXFIELD — Eight women and one man from the River Valley have been working for a year making quilts and fabric gift bags for children placed in foster homes.

The nine are members of the Dixfield chapter of It’s My Very Own — Bags of Love.

On Wednesday, they were getting ready to deliver their first batch of four bags each for boys and girls ages 3 months to 17 years to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services in Lewiston.

“We just want to do what we can for the children,” Christine Penney of Rumford said. “What it does is it meets the needs of children who are displaced from their homes because of being taken out of their homes for foster care.”

She said that when the DHHS receives a call that they have to take a child from their home, they can give the child one of the Dixfield chapter’s bags of games and toys, toiletries, stuffed animals and quilts.

“When (DHHS) gets a call, they can bring a bag, hopefully to distract the child from the trauma of being taken from their home,” Penney said.

Each handmade bag matches the quilts, which are prayed over and blessed by chapter members, and will have a big stuffed animal sticking out of the bag.

Penney said Barbara Neher Cadiz started the ministry of providing Bags of Love in 2004 in Kentucky. Ten years later, Neher Cadiz has 150 chapters across the U.S. and three provinces in Canada, as well as in Australia, New Zealand and Trinidad.

“Which is awesome,” she said. “I mean, this ministry has really grown.”

In Maine, there are three chapters: Oxford, Penobscot and York counties. The Dixfield chapter started in June 2013.

“We had a slow start because it was just a couple of us interested and now there’s like 10 of us,” Penney said. “We had no material for the quilts so we have been purchasing our own fabric and have been trying to get the first 10 quilts ready for delivery to DHHS in Lewiston.”

The group initially thought they were making the Bags of Love for DHHS in Oxford County, but it was consolidated into Lewiston, she said. They serve Oxford, Franklin and Androscoggin counties.

“So really, we’re going to be making quilts for three counties, unless we get people from other counties to kind of help us out, which we’re hoping for,” Penney said.

When they started, some sewing machines along with two rolls of batting were donated by Auger & Sons of New Hampshire. Donations of fabric came in slowly.

“People hear of us and give us their leftover fabrics and we put together the bags,” Penney said.

The group, which is open to anyone, meets from 3 to 6 p.m. on the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month at the Webb River Seventh-day Adventist School at 58 Pine St.

Penney said if people want to help but don’t want to join, they can sew and donate quilts. They must be 48 by 60 inches, and made with bright cotton fabrics geared toward boys or girls from 18 months to 18 years old.

The group, which was initially started by members in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, also accepts donations of cotton fabric, quilting supplies and money for supplies. Receipts will be given for tax purposes.

Penney said the Dixfield group also is willing to do presentations to organizations such as Rotary Clubs. Contact Penney at 369-9590 or Theresa Sweet at 562-9997.

A few months ago, the Dixfield chapter was chosen to do the service ministry of Holy Savior School in Rumford. Penney said the school had Catholic Schools Week and chapter member Bobbi-Ann Ridge of Rumford, who is a preschool teacher there, told them about Bags of Love.

The Holy Savior schoolchildren brought in toys and toiletries and stuffed animals and some of the parents made quilts.

“It was just really wonderful to encourage us on with this ministry, so it was really nice to kind of have the community involved in that way,” Penney said. “This is a ministry from God and we hope that the recipients feel the peace and grace of God.”

tkarkos@sunjournal.com