Blue Star Mothers seek volunteers to help stuff stockings for deployed soldiers

By Erin Dostal

Monday, Oct. 18, 2010 | 3:30 p.m.

The Blue Star Mothers of Henderson & Boulder City are looking for volunteers to help make Christmas stockings to send to troops overseas.

The group is planning to ship 1,200 stockings to troops deployed around the world. So far the group has collected 700 names of soldiers who will receive them. The event is in its third year.

“There’s opportunities for everybody,” said event organizer Chere Pedersen. “Even if you don’t sew, there’s a lot of fabric you can cut for stockings.”

People interested in helping to make stockings can gather at 9:30 a.m. Thursday at Downtown Sewing Machine Company, 144 Water Street, Suite 130. Carrie Mecherie of Downtown Sewing will have yards of material ready to be made into stockings. The event is expected to last all day.

Pedersen, who says she’s not much of a sewer, joked she might put herself in charge of ironing fabric for the event.

Every year, Pedersen said, there is an outpouring of support from Henderson residents who donate their time or money to the cause.

“Whether they agree with the war or don’t agree with the war, they know our kids are overseas,” Pedersen said. Pedersen’s son, Army Sgt. Alastair Addie, is a medic. He is currently stationed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

The city has placed collection boxes for goodies to stuff in the stockings in downtown Henderson and at city hall. From Nov. 9 through Nov. 11, the group will stuff the stockings at the Henderson Convention Center, 200 S. Water Street, in order to ship them out before Christmas.