By PHYLLIS ZORN

Staff writer

Hospitalized children at St. Luke Hospital won’t find their stay quite so boring thanks to a donation from Sunday school students at Elmdale United Methodist Church.

Sunday school students on Nov. 4 packed four dozen bags with crayons, small coloring books, toys, and puzzles. The bags were taken to hospitals in Marion, Emporia, and Council Grove.

The “gift of comfort” kits are aimed for children 3 to 10.

Not all the members packing bags were youngsters.

“We had kids ages 2 to 95,” said Carol Kohr, who coordinated the project. “This is the first year we did the comfort kits.”

Kohr said church member Gwen Simmons came up with the idea for the project, and Kohr applied for a grant from Thrivent Financial, a church-affiliated financial planning agency.

Thrivent provides mini-grants to support educational, social, and community concerns.

“It’s something to help little ones when they are stuck in the hospital,” Kohr said.