“One gift of love and kindness has spread from here around the world. It is breathtaking to watch God work with a little bit of stuffing, thread, fabric and ribbon, created by loving hands that see Him in each gift of love.”

Surely you have heard the buzz about the “Critter Ladies of White Bluff!”

“Who are we?” Sandy Cannon, founder and leader of the group, goes on to ask. She explains, “We are a group of women living within the gates of beautiful White Bluff, who, realizing our many blessings, give of our time and talents (though many don’t know that they are talented) to share God’s love with hurting children and elderly folk.”

Critters began in the fall of 2001, making stuffed animals and finger puppets for children passing through the emergency rooms of Hill County Regional Hospital and Lake Whitney Medical Center.

As the group grew in numbers, some ladies expressed a concern for the elderly in nursing homes. So the ladies expanded their ministry to making wheel chair bags, Christmas stockings stuffed with goodies, Valentine gifts and more for the residents at Park Plaza Nursing Home and Town Hall Estates.

Their ministry spread to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, where they send school supplies, Critter bears, and other needed items to children and hospitals. A great source of pride for the ladies is the certificate of appreciation from the Combined Security Transition Command Afghanistan.

The Whitney Food Bank has also been blessed by the White Bluff Chapel Critters’ love each Easter, when a Critter bunny is given to each child, and at Christmas, when each child receives a hand-stitched Christmas stocking filled with goodies and a Christian message about the reason for the season.

Another project espoused by the Critter ladies is that of sending handmade baby blankets to the "Lilies of the Valley" group of Southwest Good Samaritan Ministries on the Texas-Mexico border, as gifts to young girls who are expecting babies. The Critter ladies are sending their message of love to these children of the Valley. Some of the Critter ladies have even traveled to the Valley to give sewing lessons to the Lilies.

Critters have even been to Africa, hand-delivered there by Jack Horn in previous years and most recently, by Ann McAlpin this past Christmas. The African children had never seen a toy before receiving a handmade Critter, stitched at White Bluff. Jack and Ann have reported that the children were thrilled!

Founder Sandy Cannon states that “the bond that has woven the Critter ladies together is one of love and caring, not only for others but also for each other, in a very special way.”

Are you a “Critter Lady?” If not, you are invited to join them. You don’t need to know anything about sewing, nor do you need “talent.” Just come for the fun, and they’ll show you how to help. The ladies meet from 10:30 until noon on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month in the Maurice Martin Fellowship Hall of White Bluff Chapel.

If you would like to be involved but cannot attend the meetings, you can still contribute to the Critter efforts if you can sew, knit or crochet. For more information about the group and their work, email Sandy Cannon or call her at 254-694-1983.

The History of the Founding of Critters

The story about how Critters came to be here in White Bluff began 18 years ago, when Seth, the oldest grandson of Sandy and Dick Cannon, was just 19 days old. He was rushed to Children's Hospital and had emergency surgery one Sunday morning in June of 1992. The following morning, when Sandy went to see the baby, her daughter Jennifer, Seth’s mother, was sitting on a bed, tears in her eyes, as she held up a little hand-stitched, smiley-face pillow. Jennifer was so touched that there was someone in Dallas who cared so much about little sick babies that they took the time to make that little gift of love for an unseen stranger. Sandy has often wondered about that woman, who could never to be told what her gift would become.

A few weeks later, the chief of volunteers put out an appeal for handmade stuffed animals for Parkland Hospital. And so it began, explains Sandy. “I felt God tap my shoulder, so I gathered some ladies from Holy Trinity Lutheran Church and we began making critters and called ourselves ‘The Parkland Bears’." When she left those ladies over 12 years ago, they had made 25,000 bears, starting with that one gift of a small, smiley-face pillow.

Sandy moved to White Bluff in July of 2001. About two weeks later, there was a reception for two new doctors coming to Whitney, held at the high school. She sat down next to a lady and they exchanged information about themselves. The lady was an ER nurse in Hillsboro, and she explained that they had a problem when treating the frightened children in the emergency room. Since they had nothing to give the children, the employees were buying stuffed animals themselves to help calm and distract them. Sandy felt that familiar tap on her shoulder and told the nurse she would not believe that she had just found the person who could fill that need. Sandy knew that God was sending her here for this work, which began with that one gift of a small, smiley-face pillow.

In September of 2001, a few White Bluff ladies gathered at homes and began their journey. They purchased the fabrics themselves, starting small, and soon began to grow. When they could no longer keep all the supplies in Sandy’s home and did not have enough room to meet, Sandy approached White Bluff Chapel about their ministry. The Chapel offered to support the Critters group financially, as well as to provide the meeting and storage spaces, all from that one gift of a small, smiley-face pillow to over 16,000 gifts of love to date!

	ission				100 Alexis Hats Delivered to M.D. Anderson
		oment			May, 2011

Flying needles from the crochet spin-off group of Critters have produced quite a large collection of brightly-colored, head-hugging hats to send to hospitals. They are designed for children who are undergoing chemotherapy and have lost their hair. The project was inspired by the grand-daughter of White Bluff resident Carol Buckland, when young Alexis was going through cancer treatments last year.

Jan Schiftner, White Bluff Chapel member, has herself undergone chemotherapy and radiation this past spring at M.D. Anderson Hospital in Houston. While Jan and her husband Brett were making a trip to the hospital this week for follow-up tests, they took with them a large bag of 100 hats crocheted by WB ladies for the hospital to give to their young patients. Alexis' influence is spreading far, as are the good will and prayers of our Critters ladies.

	ission				Sister Critter Group in Clifton Enjoys Success
		oment			April, 2011

The newly-formed sister Critter group at Emmanuel Lutheran Church of Clifton reports that they now have twelve enthusiastic ladies who are learning to cut, sew and stuff lots of cats, dogs, frogs etc.

The formation of this group was reported on this site in March. It seems that when Gayle Kralik and Sandy Cannon were buying two basket-loads of fabric in November, a lady asked them what they were going to do with all that fabric. (Our Critter ladies are always asked questions like this when doing their fall buying for the upcoming year.)

Gayle and Sandy explained what Critters was all about, and how they spread their work around the world with our group of ladies. The lady inquiring said she is a nurse in Clifton and would love for our group to bring some Critters there. They made contact with Joyce David of Emmanuel Lutheran Church, former White Bluff resident, and she told her ladies about the Critters group.

White Bluff Chapel Critters ladies pray that God will bless this new group with the excitement and love that He gives to our WB Critters ladies here.

	ission				Alexis Hats Group Boasts Flying Fingers
		oment			April, 2011

The Critter-sponsored "Alexis Hats" crochet group is meeting every Monday at 10:00 a.m. in the children's Sunday School room. This new ministry is named for the granddaughter of one of our Critter gals, Carol Buckland. Carol's granddaughter Alexis, has been fighting cancer at the tender age of 14 for the past two years.

The Critter crochet group began in February to learn to crochet hats for children who need chemo caps after treatment and hair loss. They currently have fifteen ladies crocheting away, having great fellowship and contributing these hats to M.D.Anderson and Children's Hospital in Dallas. So far, they have delivered 121 hats and have 75 more ready to deliver.

Those interested in joining this group of ladies to crochet or to knit these hats can come to any meeting. They will give you yarn and instructions, which you can take home to work on at your leisure.

	ission				Sister Critter Group Organized with Emmanuel Lutheran
		oment			March, 2011

Sandy Cannon, founder of WBC's Critters ministry, and fellow Critter enthusiast Gayle Kralik, visited Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Whitney last week to extend an invitation for the ladies there to join our ladies as a sister Critter group. The invitation was met with enthusiasm, as were the patterns, fabric, notebook for record keeping, face transfers and one of the "Alexis Caps" that Sandy and Gayle displayed for them.  

While Sandy and Gayle had been asked to make their presentation in about 10 minutes, they ended up answering questions and discussing their ministry with the interested Lutheran ladies for at least 45 minutes. Now Sandy has received a call from Joyce David that the new Sister Critter group is ready to organize and that they plan to meet on Monday evenings.  Gayle and Sandy have offered to attend the meetings until the new group feels comfortable operating on their own.