Fourteen years ago, after her children graduated from Gorham High School, Heidi Farrin was looking for new opportunities to volunteer and give back to the community. Cricket Comforts, a not-for-profit organization, was born to fill this need.

Heidi knew a child’s need for “comfort from home” through her own son’s many hospital visits. Through the support of the hospital and nurses Cricket Comforts began creating pillowcases for children admitted to the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital at Maine Medical Center.

Heidi and her amazing group of volunteers deliver 155 pillowcases every month. Because of their large stockpile of pillowcases Cricket Comforts was able to provide pillowcases to BBCH during 3 years of Covid when they were not able to meet as a group. This caused their stockpile to dwindle, especially boy and gender-neutral cases.

The group decided to make restocking a fun game. During ‘March Pillowcase Madness’ they challenged themselves to produce 500 with an emphasis on boy and gender neutral cases. Cricket Comforts met twice, as a large group during March, while many other volunteers and local groups sewed throughout the month to add to the final total. An amazing 819 pillowcases were sewn and are now ready to help bring smiles to children at BBCH!

Heidi says “I thank our many amazing volunteers for their endless gift of time, talents, and materials, without which we wouldn’t have reached our goal in March.”

Please join Cricket Comforts as they create pillowcases every month. You don’t need to be an expert at sewing, because helping with trimming, pinning and ironing fabrics is also a big part of the process.

Upcoming sewing days are May 15 at First Parish Church and May 18 at Old Robie School. For more information please like Cricket Comforts on Facebook, email: CricketComforts@yahoo.com or call Heidi Farrin at 207.632.2542.