A touch of heaven

Written by Heather Spangler

Photos by Matthew Holst

Cleanne Schieber stands in front of a glass case in the Mercy Hospital Community Relations room. The case displays each of the unique angel ornaments Schieber and her fellow Angel of Mercy group members have made to benefit the hospital since 1986.

Schieber reaches in to adjust one little angel that holds a green wreath on her front.

“She needs to be turned around so we can see how cute she is,” Schieber says.

The 1986 angel was made of pasta. The ladies also have made angels out of beads, bells, wood, lace, wire, string, even burlap one year and an upside down rose another.

This season’s ornament has a wooden dowel base covered with a white cloth dress, lace trim, fuzzy white yarn hair and a delicate gold bow.

Schieber said the women meet before their production season to vote on each year’s design. She then figures out the steps they’ll need to take to create the desired angel. Next year’s design is a combination of two angels that group members brought in as suggestions.

When it’s time to put the angels together, between 14 and 17 women, primarily seniors, meet for two hours once a week for several months to make enough to satisfy loyal customers. This year, they started in July and aimed to finish some 400 ornaments by late October.

“You don’t schedule anything else on Wednesday afternoons, except maybe bridge,” joked group member Jeanette Fitzpatrick.

The ornaments, which often sell out, go for $6 in the Mercy gift shop. The money is donated to the Mercy Foundation to fund new equipment, special projects and scholarships. Last year’s batch raised almost $2,400.

In addition to doing good for the hospital, the ladies say the group benefits them as well.

“We talk a lot, work a lot, laugh a lot,” Schieber said.

Wilma Evans, who joined the group in 1995, said camaraderie with the other women keeps her coming back year after year.

“I’ve just enjoyed being with the ladies and producing those darling little angels,” she said. “It’s kind of like a little family. We do enjoy being together.”

Mercy Volunteer Services Manager Carol Ebinger said she enjoys the group’s meetings as well.

“It’s fun to sit here and listen to them giggle,” she said. “They’re a wonderful group of ladies. Most of them have been doing it year after year after year. They’re loyal to the project and the angels have become a collector’s item here at the hospital.”