When Colleen Crenshaw heard a group of elderly living on a fixed income would have to start their lives over after the Dec. 10 tornado, it broke her heart. She and a group of friends came together to spark a little joy for a special group of people. 

In an effort to bring crafters together after the tornado left them without supplies, a group came together to share the gift of creativity and community. 

Blessed Hope Baptist Church in Mayfield, Kentucky held a crochet social and yarn giveaway, Saturday, April 30, to supply people with a variety of crafting equipment they may have lost during the tornado. 

This social encouraged experienced and beginner crafters to support one another, crochet together and make new friends. 

Melanie Cummings, the event coordinator at Blessed Hope, organized the social after she received a message from Crenshaw, an avid crafter specializing in crocheting, from Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Crenshaw wrote that she wanted to donate supplies to help fellow crafters. 

Crenshaw, a member of “For the Love of Crochet” contacted Blessed Hope in March, after seeing posts on their Facebook page, showing the church coming together to provide tornado relief. Through the group, Crenshaw discovered  one of the members who was living in the Eloise Fuller Senior Living Apartments in Mayfield had lost everything.  

While trying to contact a donation center in Mayfield, Crenshaw said she found a Blessed Hope event posted in a Facebook group. 

“I messaged the church on Facebook telling them about my idea to bring yarn, hooks & needles, and other items to be given away to the elderly from the Fuller Apartments or really anyone.”

Crenshaw and her crocheting friends collected over 400 skeins of yarn with lots of blanket-size [kits], all sizes of hooks, project bags, pattern books and printed patterns and some other accessories for this event. 

Besides her Facebook group, Crenshaw had offers from across the country to ship materials. 

 “There were some who are so grateful that they don’t live in a tornado area who want to donate if this event happens again,” Crenshaw said. “I know Facebook has a bad reputation but it is full of good people who use it for the positive.” 

Crocheting and knitting can be therapeutic to those impacted by the tornado because it can be another way victims can ease their minds, Cummings said. 

Besides this social, Blessed Hope has held three tornado relief supply distribution days to provide food, Bibles, clothes and other household necessities to individuals in need. 

Cummings said it’s a blessing to be able to help her community after the tornado affected so many in the region. 

“We had several distribution days where we distributed necessary supplies such as food, baby items, cleaning supplies, heaters, air mattresses, blankets, clothing, dishes, pots and pans, silverware, kitchen and bath towels, gas cards, Walmart gift cards, etc,” Cummings said. “ We also have helped families on an individual basis where they have either contacted our church to ask for help or we found them reaching out on the tornado pages.”

The distribution days are designed to provide people affected with essential items, but Cummings said the social events are vital to the recovery process. 

“I noticed through talking to tornado survivors that many of them also struggle with their emotional needs,” Cummings said. “Many people are getting help with their physical needs but we also have to ask ourselves, how can we help people with their emotional and spiritual needs?” 

Distribution events allow people to gather and encourage each other to keep moving forward, Cummings said. 

“Mayfield as well as other surrounding areas affected by the tornado has brought people together,” Cummings said. “There is a lot of good that can come through destruction and tragedy. People have been so kind and working together in a world that needs more of this kind of camaraderie.”

Cummings aims to host more events in the future, focusing on individuals’ emotional and spiritual needs, in addition to their physical needs.

Crenshaw said building relationships is important.

“I believe that the simple act of sitting beside someone trying to do the same thing, even if you are struggling with it, begins a bond that you can build on,” Crenshaw said. “It may not work for everyone but my experience is that it does help strangers fellowship over something not quite so intimate as you are getting to know someone.”

To get more information on Blessed Hope Baptist Church and their upcoming events, like their Facebook page at ​​BHBMAYFIELDKY.