http://www.mattschemobags.com/There aren’t many soft and cuddly aspects to undergoing chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer. After all, one’s body is being pumped full of chemicals that kill fast-growing cells, which besides the bad cancerous ones also include those in hair follicles, bone marrow and the digestive tract.

A senior at Liberty High School in Hillsboro, Matt Ferguson is attempting to bring some creature comforts to women undergoing the therapy by giving them bags full of goodies, and students in Jean Housgard’s home-economics class at Chehalem Valley Middle School recently lent a helping hand.

A table next to her room’s sewing machines was covered with brightly colored blankets and scarves. “They’re made out of fleece and they’re all soft,” said Housgard, who purchased the cloth herself. The pieces were either sewn or tied together by her seventh-grade class.

Housgard said she heard about Ferguson’s nonprofit agency, “Matt’s Chemo Bags,” at a meeting of the Oregon Association of Student Councils, which is headed by a former Newberg School District teacher. “I was talking to her about doing a community service project,” she said.

Ferguson, who came himself to pick up the blankets, told the students that he started the nonprofit after his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer during a routine mammogram examination. As she underwent the chemotherapy treatment she toted a small bag stocked with some comfort items. After witnessing how much it helped her, Ferguson decided to provide those to other cancer patients. “I’ve made more than 5,000 bags in the past three and a half years,” he said.

He told the middle school students that helping their community is a big part of growing up. Ferguson has received several awards and grants to support his work, but “he has a hard time getting the homemade items,” Housgard said. Ferguson hands out about one bag per day and delivers about half of them in person. He told the students that hand-delivering a bag to a cancer patient is extremely rewarding.

Hailey Fox, 12, said that making a blanket was a bit challenging at first, as she wasn’t tying the strands correctly. Her partner, Breanna Craig, 12, said the pair also worked on decorating the boxes in which they placed the 20 blankets and 12 scarves for Ferguson.

For more information about Ferguson’s charity, go to http://mattschemobags.com/ To donate raw materials to the home economics class, call CVMS at 503-554-4912.

Story by Laurent Bonczijk, Newberg Graphic