Volunteers needed for Angel Dresses

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This article was published 21/10/2020 (1991 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An organization dedicated to supporting families through the experiences of miscarriage and infant loss is looking for volunteers to help make a difference in the Brandon area.

Manitoba Angel Dresses is an organization that provides bereavement clothing to families that have lost an infant. The organization seeks to ease some of the stress of grieving families by providing them with handmade outfits for their children who have died.

The angel gowns and layettes are hand-sewn by volunteers using donated wedding dresses and other wedding clothing. Manitoba Angel Dresses provides outfits to funeral homes, hospitals and nursing stations across the province, as well as directly to families who have experienced a loss.

Although fairly new to Angel Dresses Manitoba, Brandon resident Melissa Scraggs has taken the initiative to start a local chapter in the Westman area.

Scraggs first learned of the organization after the loss of her own daughter. She had the opportunity to work with a funeral home that had been gifted layettes from Manitoba Angel Dresses and clothe her daughter in one of the outfits the organization had made.

“That was a really huge privilege and it helped us to not have to worry about what she was … what she was going to wear during her burial,” Scraggs said. “Part of the organization’s mission is to ease the stress on grieving families and so I feel it did that for us.”

This prompted Scraggs to become involved with Manitoba Angel Dresses herself.

“I think it’s a really great cause. I know what helped us and I know it will likely help other families,” she said.

The organization has its roots in Saskatchewan, where it was founded by Becky Panter in 2014. After the death of her infant son in February of that year, Panter sought to develop a support service for families that were going through similar experiences.

Having wrapped her own son in a doll’s blanket, she sought out a seamstress to turn her wedding dress into bereavement clothing to be given to Regina General Hospital in memory of her son. Less than a month later, 200 outfits had been made by 20 volunteers across the province and Saskatchewan Angel Dresses was established.

A Manitoba branch of the organization soon followed and now has approximately 100 active volunteers across the province. Since 2014, Manitoba Angel Dresses has produced 2,766 angel layettes made from 1,200 donated dresses.

Scraggs is currently looking for volunteers to help build Manitoba Angel Dresses’ presence in her part of the province. While the organization isn’t specifically headquartered in one place, she said that much of the packing and distribution of outfits is done out of Winnipeg.

“We’ve had a little bit of interest so far, but we’re hoping to find more volunteers in this specific area, just so that we can supply the hospitals and funeral homes in our area with items created in this area, rather than everything coming from Winnipeg,” Scraggs said.

Available volunteer positions include seamstresses, knitters and crocheters, packaging and delivery people, fundraisers and outreach ambassadors. Time commitments vary between positions, but those making the angel outfits are expected to produce a certain number of outfits within an eight-week period.

Those looking to get involved with the Brandon chapter of Manitoba Angel Dresses can do so by either visiting the “volunteers” section of the Manitoba Angel Dresses website or by getting in touch with Scraggs at 204-750-1517.

For Scraggs, working with Manitoba Angel Dresses is both a very personal and very fulfilling experience, one that she believes other volunteers have as well.

“The volunteers … they believe in the organization’s mission statement and so a lot of the volunteers connect on a personal level to the people that we’re trying to help,” Scraggs said. “Maybe they’ve been through an experience where they’ve lost a child or known somebody who has lost a child, and they just want to be able to help in some way and I think it’s a really therapeutic way to do that.”

» eklatt@brandonsun.com

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