Outreach Newspaper Article on our Resident Betty Murphy

Tigard woman quilts holiday gifts for low-income Forest Grove children

By Kari Bray

Three years ago, doctors said Betty Murphy was dead after she broke her neck in several places. Today, the cheerful 71-year-old from Tigard is the artist behind dozens of quilts and hundreds of teddy bears for local children in low-income families.

Betty Murphy, Peg Coburn, Margaret Bork and Elina Spyker fill the holiday gift bags for Adelante Mujeres on Wednesday, Dec. 12. Courtesy of Shellee Baidenmann

"I'm doing it because I love it and I figure I came back here for a reason," Murphy said Friday afternoon.

"Either that or he didn't want me because I'm a trouble-maker," she added with a smile.

Along with whatever trouble she's made recently, Murphy crafted 27 quilts and teddy bears for preschoolers in Forest Grove who are part of Adelante Mujeres' early education program.

The program prepares low-income Latino children, some as young at 18 months, for kindergarten through lessons in literacy and other core concepts.

Adelante Mujeres is one of several organizations that receive Murphy's hand-made gifts and distribute them to children for the holidays. Murphy quilts mostly on her own but works with a group of other women at Summerfield Estates Retirement Community to create the teddy bears, she said.

Other Summerfield seniors are involved in different crafts that also go into the gift bags. Each child at Adelante Mujeres received a quilt, a teddy bear, a board of dress-up felt dolls, a bell on yarn and a hand-stitched candy holder or ornament.

Parents and children open the gift bags from Summerfield Estates at a celebration Friday, Dec. 14, in St. Anthony's Catholic Church.Kari Bray/Forest Grove Leader

"We try to give to places who don't get much," Murphy said. "There are a lot of cold bodies out there, a lot of lonely kids and sick kids and unhappy kids, and they need something. Everything we make, we make with love so they can feel that love."

While she is making the quilts -- each one of which requires nearly four hours of work -- Murphy often times crafts the words "we love you" into the project somewhere.

Isabel Cordero, mother of 4-year-old quilt-recipient Ricardo Avarez, said she is grateful for the gift because it shows how much people can care about others. She expects Ricardo to fall asleep with his quilt and teddy bear at night.

Cordero sat with other parents and children in a classroom at Saint Anthony's Catholic Church Friday afternoon, clapping and cheering as each student received their holiday gift. The children beamed as they dug into colorful bags large enough that most of them could have comfortably fit inside with their gifts.

Enedelia Avendaño, mother of 6-year-old JuanCarlos, said her son did not expect to receive the gifts and was happily surprised. She wants to thank the seniors at Summerfield Estates.

"I wish them a happy holiday and much joy," she said.

Murphy said she gets her joy out of knowing the children are happy, and she hopes someday they will look at her outreach group's gifts to them and know they are loved.

She has no children of her own, but has been a foster mother to many and reaches out to hundreds more through organizations like Adelante Mujeres, Candlelighters and Good Neighbor Center. This year, she and her friends made 489 teddy bears, and Murphy said she can't keep track of the number of quilts.

Shellee Baidenmann, Summerfield activities director, said the community has several outreach programs that work with organizations like Adelante Mujeres. These groups consist of self-motivated seniors who work together on projects like knitting, crocheting and quilting for a cause.

"They won't make things, they won't do crafts, unless it has a purpose," Baidenmann said.

Murphy said her projects for the community give her life purpose, and she is already planning to clean out her quilting apartment and start again in January.

"The doctors said I wasn't going to live," Murphy said. "So I guess I'm meant to be doing what I'm doing."