It’s a first for RESTOR International, Surgical Gowns, and made even more meaningful as they are all being hand-sewn by a group of Okanagan ladies. “It’s Mona’s fault” claims Katie Revere, who appears to be the team leader on this project.
Katie’s husband, who recently passed away, was an orphan, and long claimed that love and direction of people around him helped him make his life worthwhile.
Katie on the other hand, is one of 10 children. And while each of them endured separate struggles, it is the memory of these that has in part motivated this endeavour. Katie “feels for the children who are innocent and who don’t have choices”. She says, “We all have the ability to give and I’ve always been a sewer”. She enjoys the creativity, and so this is how she chooses to contribute.
The volunteers in this group, Katie Revere, Mona Swikert, Kerry Gordon, Tianna Emond, Sonya Russell, Jen Sutton, and Donna Vukelic, will make thirty, cheerful, professional looking surgical gowns for the patients to wear into surgery.
“This is so special because we’ve never had gowns in the past”, says Mission Director Jeannie Bird. Patients often arrive in the tattered clothes that they’ve walked (sometimes for days) in. Now we will be able to give each patient a gown and some dignity prior to their surgery.
