Having just led her legion of local seamstresses to the honor of being the best mid-size chapter of the American Sewing Guild in the U.S., Alma Gates is now overseeing the stitching of hundreds of quilts, baby caps, teddy bears, lap comforters and many other items that will become gifts to the poor, aged and disabled this holiday season.

Retired from 27 years as a home economics teacher at Hanby Middle School in Gold Hill, Gates, 67, volunteers long hours guiding her 10 neighborhood groups as they sew helpful items that go to such agencies as the Gospel Mission, veterans' domiciliary, birth centers, the Magdalene Home for unwed mothers, Dunn House, the Safe Place, hospices and local hospitals.

"I'm just so proud of all these ladies who are helping those less fortunate than us," said Gates at the ASG's annual stocking stuffing party for the needy at ACCESS. "I like to see them succeed. All it takes is to give them a few little guidelines, and they sew their hearts out for the community.

The ASG is a nationwide movement with 136 chapters that helps keep the skill-intensive "art and life skill" of sewing alive, while using its output to improve community social help organizations, says Gates.

The 10 subgroups of the local chapter each focus on their own skill — surging, machine embroidering, quilting and general sewing — producing such useful items as slippers, neck rests, pin cushions, microwave heating pads and walker and armchair totes (they drape on a senior's chair or walker and hold the remote, meds, magazines).

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Chapter members go to the national convention in the summer and also organize Project Runway and Each One Teach One (to get young women interested in sewing).

All this takes a lot of organization, good-humored leadership and skill — and Gates has it, says ASG member Kathy Niskanen. "Alma has great leadership skills, getting everything done in a quietly understated way." Adds member Alice Speck: "Alma is great and she drags people into everything with good humor."

At their annual holiday party at ACCESS members fill stockings and ditty bags, not just with their sewn items, but toiletries, soap, shampoo and other handy items, mostly for children and teen mothers, with some going to needy seniors, says Barbara Bieg of ACCESS — and sometimes, such gifts "allow a senior to give a gift to a grandchild."

The Medford chapter was created a dozen years ago and, says member Jean Humphries, one of the founders, "the world would not be as good a place without it." With her husband Harry Gates, a former Southern Oregon University librarian, Alma Gates has had two children, now grown — and has been president of the Medford chapter for the past year. She will also serve as president for the coming year.

John Darling is a freelance writer living in Ashland. E-mail him at jdarling@jeffnet.org.