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player ready...For Antioch resident April Soulak-Andrews, blankets can be a powerful item.
They bring comfort, hold memories and can even inspire. In fact, while wrapped in her late mother’s blanket, Andrews thought up an idea for an organization to honor her memory. It was then that The Penny’s Purpose, and the organization’s annual blanket drive, began.
Now in its third year, the blanket drive will run this year from Nov. 1 through Dec. 15.
Penny Soulak died in 2019 after a brief illness. Andrews said that while her mother was alive she was passionate about giving back, “even when she didn’t have much to give.”
Soulak spent a lot of her time volunteering for PADS Lake County, an organization based in Waukegan that provides resources and shelter for people experiencing homelessness or who are in a housing crisis.
Andrews was inspired to collect blankets after her mother received a blanket while in hospice. Soulak was comforted by the blanket, and Andrews has also found comfort and a connection to her mom through the same blanket since her passing.
While wrapped in the blanket after an outdoor charity walk, Andrews started to reflect on her mother’s history of giving and thought of ways that she could give back to honor her memory.
“I needed to channel my grief into something,” Andrews said, and the idea to host a blanket drive was born.
The organization’s first drive was held in 2019, and Andrews said the organization collected around 600 blankets. They donated them to Advocate Hospice, PADS Lake County, Reach Rescue, Midwest Veterans Closet and other organizations.
Last year, with help from the community and student volunteers from Antioch Township High School, The Penny’s Purpose nearly tripled the amount of blankets they received, reaching a total of approximately 1,500 blankets. Currently, the organization has about 600 blankets that have been donated throughout 2021, even before the blanket drive has officially started.
“April has taken her mission to honor her mother by reaching out to communities, foundations, churches and schools (spreading) her mission far and wide,” said Michele Batz, president of Cory’s Project, one of the organizations that receives blankets from the annual drive.
Cory’s Project is named after Batz’s son, Cory Batz, who died from T-cell lymphoma in 2012. Batz’s organization provides gifts to patients battling pediatric cancer and financial support to their families that are in need.
Within the past year, Batz has put The Penny Purpose in contact with the Milwaukee Children’s Hospital to have the organization begin donating some of its blankets to children there.
“She reached out to us during our 9th annual Cory’s Project event last year and gave our foundation blankets to take up to (Milwaukee Children’s Hospital), where our son, Cory, was treated for cancer and later passed away in July 2012,” Batz said, adding that although the blanket drive is just in November and December, children at the hospital benefit all year long with the donations they receive.
Andrews said that when selecting organizations she chooses based on what Soulak “would have wanted to be a part of.”
The Penny’s Purpose has also started a blanket gifting program, in which names can be submitted on the organization’s website for people in need “of extra warmth,” according to Andrews. She said The Penny’s Purpose will do their best to find a blanket in its inventory that will fit the needs of the person who is receiving one.
She said that it’s been therapeutic to help others, especially doing so in honor of her late mother, something that helped comfort her mother while she was in hospice.
“It’s not a good day that a blanket’s going to make a difference, it’s going to make a difference on a bad day,” Andrews said. “Blankets are so powerful.”
For more information about The Penny’s Purpose, including a list of boxes to donate blankets, visit their website at thepennyspurpose.org
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