By admin 
On a rural road in Medina County sits a small church in Valley City where a women’s ministry is having a big impact far beyond the four walls of their church.
“It’s gratifying and heartwarming to know that we’ve brought joy,” said Diane Phelps, Fidget Quilt Ministry at LifeSpring Community Church.
Phelps and Patty Yarosh are part of the Fidget Quilt Ministry at LifeSpring Community Church.
“We have been blessed with so much; it’s just amazing,” Phelps added.
They make fidget quilts for adults with dementia and children with sensory needs.
“You can find them online for a fee, but no one in the community was doing it for free, and that’s where we started,” she explained.
They use all kinds of embellishments on the quilts; their imagination is the limit.
The playful patterns and creative designs on each quilt are not only fun, but also help stimulate memories, evoke interactions and develop fine motor skills.
And they have sent their quilts as far as Ukraine to comfort war children.
“It just warms your heart,” Patty said.
It warmed my heart when I received an email from Phelps regarding a story I did about a local family whose daughter, Immy, has Angelman Syndrome.
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Phelps told me she would like to send Immy a quilt.
“And it’s the first time I’ve ever connected with a story that I’ve seen like this,” Phelps said. “So it was like, we’ll see what God does with this.”
I shared Phelps’ email with Immy’s mother, Beth, and within a few days I received photos of Immy with her quilt.
Phelps sent two quilts, which Beth shared with another mother of a local child with Angelman syndrome. Beth told me how much Immy loved the quilt and how touched they were by the gesture.
And it is clear that the gift is often in the giving.
“Oh, how wonderful,” said Phelps, Yarosh, and a few other women in the quilting group as they looked at the photos of Immy and her quilt on my phone.
Their faces beamed with smiles.
“That’s why we’re doing this,” Phelps said.
“Right,” Yarosh said. “That’s why we do this.”
The common thread that is sewn into everything the women do and ties it all together is love.
“Showing love to other people is really what we should be doing,” Phelps said. “Our world needs more love.”
It’s what keeps them going, they told me, with now more than 800 quilts and counting.
“And we’re still doing well,” Patty said.
The ladies told me that they enjoy taking requests and encouraging people to contact them if they have a loved one or group that could benefit from this and enjoy a fidget quilt.
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