Candy Dorsey (front) and Rita Macy celebrate the New Year in Craft Club style.

June Blaydes (center), surrounded by her family after receiving a Coburn Place volunteer award in 2004.

One of the longest running and most loved activities at Coburn Place is Craft Club. Once a month, a group of volunteers provides the supplies for Coburn Place ladies to create a craft project to make and take home. More importantly though, they give the women a couple of hours each month to relax, to visit and to explore their creativity.

Each January, our Craft Club ladies trade in their hot glue guns and scissors for spatulas and mixing bowls to usher in the New Year with a special dinner and celebration. This year was bittersweet. As always, the room was beautifully decorated with good china and festive balloons. Wonderful smells of home-cooked food still filled the air. But one very important person was missing. June Blaydes, Craft Club founder and wonderful Coburn Place friend, died in October after a brave battle with illness. As thoughts turned toward a new beginning, they also returned to a caring woman whose spirit, spunk and enthusiasm will always touch those who knew her. Our many thanks to June and all our Craft Club ladies for the special memories they have helped Coburn Place women create.