wfn.org | [UMNS-ALL-NEWS] UMNS# 349-Sock monkey ministry brings comfort to thousands

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Sock monkey ministry brings comfort to thousands

>Aug. 20, 2008

NOTE: Photographs and video are available at http://umns.umc.org.

>By John Gordon*

CHELSEA, Ala. (UMNS)-Beth VanSickle still remembers the comfort she felt
as a child when her grandmother gave her a sock monkey.

"It always brought me joy, no matter what I was going through in my
life," she says of the stuffed, handcrafted doll.

Now, struggling with cancer, VanSickle is spreading that same comfort to
thousands of others, including children with cancer and troops and
children in Iraq.

Volunteers for Sock Monkey Ministries, which VanSickle founded in 2005,
find it difficult to keep up with the demand. They have made 8,500 sock
monkeys in the last two years, and there is still a waiting list.

"When you look at them, you can't help but smile," she says of whimsical
toys.

VanSickle started making sock monkeys in Texas when she was a member of
First United Methodist Church in Sugarland. The first were given to the
homeless, then she started making them for cancer patients.

"I started having more intense chemotherapy treatment," she recalls
about her own illness. "And when I would go to M.D. Anderson (Cancer
Center), I would look around and I'd see fear and loneliness and
discouragement in many of the faces of the women and children there."

After her family moved to Chelsea, Ala., near Birmingham, they joined
Lakeview Pelham First United Methodist Church, where members embraced
the ministry.

VanSickle e-mailed about 200 orphanages across the United States
offering sock monkey gifts for children. She expected to receive one or
two replies, but every orphanage responded with a toy request. Soon,
VanSickle recruited several dozen churches and other organizations
across the country to help. She calls the volunteers her "monkey posse."

The ministry has given sock monkeys to cancer patients, children with
autism or Down syndrome, soldiers and children in Iraq and Afghanistan,
the homeless and anyone else who needs comfort and encouragement.

"I love them," says Shelby Haire, 14, who has Down syndrome and has been
treated for leukemia. "I always play with them and talk to them."

Her mother, Christy Haire, joined the effort and makes sock monkeys for
other children with Down syndrome. "For Shelby, they're probably her
best friend," she says. "She plays with them every day."

The monkeys are made with thick, red-heeled socks manufactured by Fox
River Mills in Iowa.  American crafters made sock monkeys with them for
generations.

VanSickle adds her own special touches, including funny faces and
colorful yarn for hair.  Volunteers also place a foam heart inside each
doll and pray for the recipient. "Kids nowadays are so used to the
high-tech toys," she says. "But you get a sock monkey and it's something
that's nostalgic and vintage. This is a toy that will never get old."

Each monkey takes at least three hours to make and is truly a labor of
love.

"Miss Beth has touched everybody's lives," says Donna Corbin, a
volunteer with VanSickle's church. "If you're lonely, you get a sock
monkey. If you're sick, you get a sock monkey."

Jim Stedman, another volunteer, calls the gifts a symbol of hope. "It
puts smiles on people's faces who seem like they have no hope. It's
something to hold on to," he says.

VanSickle says her own battle with cancer led her to start the ministry.

"It just gives me a renewed sense of purpose," she says. "Every day when
I wake up, if I'm feeling down or in pain, all I have to do is think
about a monkey and think about the recipient."

She wants the ministry to continue, even after she is gone.

"None of us live forever and when you're diagnosed with a terminal
condition, you know that your life is limited. We can do something with
the time that you're given, or not. And it's a true blessing for me,
personally, knowing that I'm leaving this world a better place than when
I came in."

To learn more about Sock Monkey Ministries, visit
www.sockmonkeyministry.com.

*Gordon is a freelance producer and writer based in Marshall, Texas.

News media contact: Fran Coode Walsh, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470
or newsdesk@umcom.org.

>********************

United Methodist News Service Photos and stories also available at: http://umns.umc.org

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