Skip to main content
Tuesday, November 10, 2026Nov 10
Subscribe
All Sections
Search
More

Kennedy: The ultimate warm, fuzzy story

Female inmates at the CCA Silverdale Detention Center help assemble fleece blankets to be distributed by the Valamont Womens Club.
Female inmates at the CCA Silverdale Detention Center help assemble fleece blankets to be distributed by the Valamont Womens Club. Female inmates at the CCA Silverdale Detention Center help assemble fleece blankets to be distributed by the Valamont Womens Club.

By Mark Kennedy 3 min read

Sometimes warm, fuzzy stories are literally warm and fuzzy.

You could say that about a project of the Valamont Women’s Club. The ladies turn discounted fleece into cuddle-blankets for sick kids.

The Valamont Women’s Club here dates to the 1950s. Its members do things like supplying toiletry items to retirement homes and turning out for an annual Alzheimer’s charity walk.

photo Mark Kennedy

What makes this new effort so warm and fuzzy – besides the fleece throws themselves – are the layers of volunteering that go into making the blankets, which are given away to children at T.C. Thompson Children’s Hospital at Erlanger and the Ronald McDonald House.

The ladies of Valamont – which means “between the mountain and the valley” – buy the fleece material when it’s on sale at Chattanooga-area fabric stores. When somebody spots a good deal, the texts fly like a flock of startled starlings.