Club the Chit Chats makes and donates bags of comfort items for Sheriff’s Office to give children removed from parents who have been arrested or otherwise failed to provide proper care for them

Members of the Chit Chats, a club in St. Bernard Parish, hold bags of items being donated to the Sheriff’s Office for children being removed from negligent parents. From left are Judy Hoffmeister, Lynn Siegfried, Jackie Donnelly, Verleen Showalter, club President Shirley Pechon, Maxine Wilson, Sheriff James Pohlmann, Fay Shirley, Audrey Serigne and Betty Showalter In back row are Sheriff’s Office Det. Capt. Mark Jackson. Det. Joe Warren and Det. Sgt. Michelle Canepa. Not pictured is Jamie Shultz, who also participated in making bags for children.

Shirley Pechon holds a blanket, one of the items in a bag for children.. In the background is club member and former Parish Council member Judy Hoffmeister.	Shirley Pechon and Judy Hoffmeister check bags to be donated to the Sheriff’s Office to give to children.

It’s obviously a sad and possibly traumatic situation when children are removed from parents who have been arrested or otherwise failed to provide proper care for them.

But a St. Bernard Parish group, the Chit Chats, is trying to give some comfort to the young people in their moment of need.

The group of about 15 women made and are donating a dozen or so bags of items for the Sheriff’s Office to give children thrust into a situation where they are removed from the custody of negligent parents.

“It’s just to give them (children) a little comfort’’ in a change of situation for them, said Shirley Pechon, president of the Chit Chats.

Bags contain items such as blankets, stuffed toys, toiletries for children, Pechon said.

The group, which is more than 40 years old, is part of the St. Bernard Volunteers for Family and Community, which helps fund projects in the parish to help schools, clubs and non-profit groups including Special Olympics, Project Graduation and the 4-H Club.

“We try to do what we can for the community,’’ Pechon said.

Some bags were given recently to Sheriff’s Office detectives from the Juvenile Division, who deal with situations involving minors being removed from homes by the State Department of Children and Family Services. Such children go to relatives if possible or, if not, into state custody.

Sheriff James Pohlmann attended a meeting of the Chit Chats group in Arabi to say thanks for their donation. “These things we appreciate,’’ he told the group. The sheriff said of Juvenile Division detectives, “The job they deal with is tough work.’’

Det. Capt. Mark Jackson, Det. Sgt. Michelle Canepa and Det. Joe Warren also attended.

Canepa said sometimes children being removed from a home because of negligence by parents have been living in dreadful circumstances, such as in filthy conditions, and literally have nothing of their own to bring when they are
brought somewhere else.

Detectives sometimes have bought things including diapers for infants whose parents were providing no sanitary items to them, she said.

The bags will help give such children something to help them, Canepa said.