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Somewhere, the sewing bee that runs every Thursday in the basement of St. Thomas Wesley United Church must hold a record for the longest number of years running, or maybe the most hours logged, the most members or the largest production.

Edna Poncelet started Cloth for Kids in 2002 with three volunteers and five or six bags of fabric, turning out 1,300 items for people in need that year.

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Since then it has grown to more than 60 volunteers, producing around 9,000 pieces annually. Between 25 and 35 members gather in the church basement on Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., while other volunteers sew at home and a group in Waldheim knits items.

Photo by (Morgan Modjeski/The Saskatoon StarPhoenix) / Saskatoon

“It’s a vision that I never thought would go this far,” Poncelet says.

They make items such as sweat pants, T-shirts, pyjamas and quilts.

“It breaks your heart when you hear kids are taken away from their parents … and they just come with what they have on their backs … they don’t even have a pair of pyjamas,” she says.