CAREGIVER • SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2022 • 11
A donation to
Tickets for Kids® Charities
can send a child to the zoo,
the ballpark or the museum,
often for the very first time.
Your contribution will be
helping to provide a ticket
to a whole new world!
Find out more!
www.ticketsforkids.org
2X2HF-FIL-1
For those battling cancer,
satchels were more than bags Keeping families together when
adno=215764
rmhcpgh-mgtn.org/donate
Thank You for Voting Us One of 2021
BEST PHARMACIES&MOBILITY PROVIDERS
MORE THAN YOUR
LOCAL PHARMACY
• Standard & Complex
Rehab Mobility
• Durable Medical
Equipment
• Medical Supplies
• Repiratory
• Home Accessibility
• Stair Lifts - Ramps
Serving Regions of Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia&New York
800-472-2440 • www.blackburnsmed.com
301 Corbet Street - Tarentum, PA 15084
COURTESY OF HEATHER KNUTH
The Satchels of Caring Foundation distributed more than 18,000 hand-sewn bags during its nearly 20-year run.
with tasteful contents to someone they
didn’t know. The consensus was that
the satchel made a bad day better.”
A volunteer’s son wanted to do a
project for Eagle Scouts and created a
man’s version of the bag with a drawstring
and other items guys could use.
One of the annual fundraisers for
Satchels of Caring was Bags, Bellinis
& Brunch, which raised an average
of $25,000 over the past several years,
according to Knuth.
The plan is to donate remaining
funds to an organization with similar
core values, one that supports cancer
research and Satchels of Caring’s mission,
Knuth said.
The women who initally started the
project were members of a group called
CREW (Commercial Real Estate Women),
and creating the “New You program”
“Having a foundation,
a registered 501c3 allowed
us to accept donations
and focus on our mission of
supporting those with cancer.”
HEATHER KNUTH
was their philanthropic effort.
The program grew so much and had a
different mission than CREW, so they
decided to split away and create a new
foundation called Satchels of Caring.
“Having a foundation, a registered
501c3 allowed us to accept donations
and focus on our mission of supporting
those with cancer,” said Knuth,
who is an interior designer and lives
in Cecil, Washington County. Her
connections helped with materials
for the bags.
“It allowed me access to loads of
beautiful free fabric and to share our
mission with a network of professionals
I do business with on a daily basis,”
Knuth said.
People told Knuth they bring the
satchel each time they come for treatment
because there are items they
need and they definitely use them.
“These are some of the worst days of
their lives, and to be given a beautiful,
meaningful gift means the world to
them,” Knuth said. “When we meet
these people, they share their stories
with us. The bags carry more than
personal items. They carry love.”
JoAnne Klimovich Harrop is a Tribune-
Review staff writer. You can contact Jo-
Anne at 724-853-5062, jharrop@tribweb
.com or via Twitter @joannescoop.
they need each other most .
Pittsburgh and Morgantown
RECYCLE YouR NEwspapER!