By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com

COUNTY — A local nonprofit is seeking items area senior citizens can use to keep warm this fall and winter.

Members of Warmth and Comfort for the Elderly in Upstate SC use their crochet skills to provide warm items for nursing home patients, hospice groups, home health patients and elderly people who live at home and can’t afford them. They also hold regular donation drives.

In September, the group asked for donations of “new or handmade throws, blankets, hats, scarves, gloves, socks, lap quilts and just about any other items of warmth the elderly in our facilities could use,” said Tammy Ferguson, the group’s CEO. “State regulations will not allow us to donate used items at this time.”

The group is also holding a toiletry drive through Dec. 1, she said.

Items needed are Christmas stockings, toothpaste, toothbrushes, body wash (no bar soaps), body lotion, hand lotion, shampoo, conditioner, chapstick, deodorant, pens, pencils, small notepads, new handkerchiefs for men, mirrors, combs, hair brushes and individual-size Kleenex.

“We want small sizes to be able to place more items in stockings,” Ferguson said.

Drop-off sites are the YMCA in Pickens, in Easley at Under the Carolina Moon and Integrated Yoga Therapy, in Powdersville at Front Porch Fixins and in Dacusville/Easley at Earthworks Unlimited.

Warmth and Comfort will hold a drop-in open house from 2-5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 30, at 149 Ivey Hayes Road in Pickens.

Light refreshments will be served on the grounds. RSVP by emailing warmthandcomfortfortheelderly@gmail.com or calling (864) 238-4652.

For more information about the group, email warmthandcomfort@gmx.com or call (864) 668-1021. Learn more about the group at its Facebook page.