Passing the Mantle: Tullahoma ladies continue legacy of Bags of Love

By Crista Crittenden

There once was a woman who loved her community so much that she used her time, talents, and skills to sew things for anyone who needed it. Like Tabitha (also known as Dorcus) in the New Testament, Loretta Boyd, from the Woodbury, Tenn., Church saw a need and answered the call using the gifts God gave her to show God’s love. In 2006, Boyd heard a story of a program called “It’s My Very Own/Bags of Love”.

It’s My Very Own (IMVO), a faith-based, voluntary organization, seeks to make kids’ lives a little brighter by working with communities to provides displaced children with Bags of Love that meet their immediate needs. Each bag of love includes a handmade quilt, stuffed animal, toys, books, and personal items. The bags are age-appropriate and are delivered to the local agencies charged with removing children from unsafe homes.

Moved by their stories and this organization’s mission, Boyd felt God calling her to help. So, in July 2006, Boyd, sponsored by the Cookeville Christian Broadcasting, and in conjunction with the Cookeville Church’s Women’s Ministry team, began the Cookeville Chapter of IMVO to serve the needs of foster care children in Putnam County, Tenn.

Seventeen years later, in November 2023, I heard about IMVO from one of the ladies from my church, who introduced me to their National Director, Susan Schnell, and her husband, Pastor Arnold Schnell.

Her story and her mission inspired me to introduce the ladies of the Tullahoma Church Women’s Ministry team to this incredible ministry and to maybe make a few bags and help finish a few quilts. I had no idea what was about to happen!

I just thought I would put out a box in the lobby of the church for donations, and a list of items needed in the bulletin on Sabbath, then meet with our ladies and Schnell the following Sunday to do the sewing. As usual, we only had six ladies and one girl show up, par for the course for our little small-town church. I was expecting that. What I wasn’t expecting was the sheer volume of donations in that one little box that had been given in just one week.

Over the next few weeks, this ministry seemed to take on a life of its own. Donations kept coming in – and not just stuffed animals and toiletries. One of our ladies told some community friends, and suddenly we had three bags full of handmade blankets. Another lady got connected with a group in Murfreesboro, Tenn., that made and donated the bags to hold everything in. Now all we needed was to build up our supply and start filling up bags, and that’s when we were introduced to Boyd.

You see, after seventeen years and hundreds of bags of love created and distributed throughout Cannon County, Boyd was looking to pass the mantle to a new group of women. She had a basement full of supplies she was looking to donate to another IMVO group, and we were in need of supplies to get started.

So that’s how we found ourselves in Boyd’s basement filling up twenty bags of love to donate to the Cannon County Relative Caregiver program, and then loading up the rest of the supplies to take to split between the new Tullahoma Chapter and the National office in Monteagle, Tenn.

As I stood next to Boyd, looking over her scrapbook of It’s IMVO, I felt like Elisha as he walked with Elijah along the road just before the elder prophet left his mantle for the younger man to place on his shoulders (2 Kings 2:13). I felt overwhelmed, unprepared, and honored, all at the same time! Then I remembered the words of one of my favorite songs, “I don’t know where this is going, but I know who holds my hand. It’s not the path I would have chosen, but I’ll follow You to the end!” (Desert Road by Casting Crowns).

I have no idea what five women and a sewing machine can accomplish, but I’m willing to find out!

If you want to find out more about how you can get involved with IMVO, feel free to check out their website at imvo.org.