The CHEMO Bag, Inc. recognized and thanked its 70 sponsors and volunteers at its 2019 appreciation dinner held recently at the Tavern at The Sun Inn in historic Bethlehem. In its seventh year, the non-profit is committed to providing free gift bags filled with items that provide comfort to patients undergoing chemotherapy treatments.

At the dinner, Board of Directors President Cathy Heimsoth told her audience that the organization that was started by the vision and passion one family has grown to an active volunteer effort. “We are blogging and working to gain more visibility. We have no administrative costs, so 100 percent of donations goes to fill the bags.”

Recognizing that The CHEMO Bag would not work without volunteers, Heimsoth quoted

from Sherry Anderson, author of “Rising from Defeat”: “Volunteers don’t get paid, not because they’re worthless, but because they’re priceless.”

Cancer survivor and gift bag recipient Robin Zamadics was the evening’s guest speaker. When she was diagnosed with stage two breast cancer in 2016, she said she was scared. When she went for her first chemotherapy treatment, she was given her bag. “It was so special that someone had put the bag together and hoped that I would be all right.”

After her treatments, Zamadics went to the Hope Lutheran Church in Cherryville, where she worships, and got more than 100 students in the Sunday School classes to collect items for more gift bags. “I wanted to help others get the bags,” she explained. She got her wish. The students’ campaign collected two carloads of items.

Appropriate gift bag items that can be donated include bottled water, colloidal oatmeal soap, crystallized ginger, green tea and ginger tea, lip balm, preservative free treats, knitted hats, 50 by 60-inch lap blankets mints, lemon drops and gum.

Since its founding, The CHEMO Bag has distributed 3,000 gift bags at seven infusion centers in the Lehigh Valley, or on average more than 400 per year. Volunteer coordinator Kelly Harwick says that number has grown to 70 bags a month, or double the number per year.