DOVER-FOXCROFT – Alyssa Murano’s tiny fingers stretched Saturday as she maneuvered brightly colored material under the needle on her small electric sewing machine.

Murano, 7, of LaGrange could have been outside playing or watching a movie that day. Instead, she worked with approximately 60 people – including nine members of her American Legion Junior Auxiliary from Brownville Junction – making lap blankets for Project Linus, a national organization that donates blankets to children who are in difficult situations.

“I did it to help other people in their need,” the young girl said. She also said it gave her a “good feeling.”

That good feeling was evident among all of the participants as their hands worked tirelessly throughout the day for the benefit of others.

“I like the craft work, and I figure I might as well give back something while I’m on this earth,” Polly Merrill of Dover-Foxcroft said Saturday.

She appliques her quilts by hand. Her sister Eleanor Heath, 93, of Milo joined her for the event. “I think it’s a wonderful thing, and I love doing it,” Heath said.

Four women from Lincoln, an hour’s drive from Dover-Foxcroft, also participated. Charald Comeau said that her Lincoln friends usually meet at her house to quilt and have lunch, but they decided instead to join the Dover-Foxcroft group.

This year’s participation stunned organizer Merlene Sanborn of Brownville.

“I never expected it to be this huge,” she said Saturday as she looked over an auditorium filled with people, sewing machines, ironing boards and materials. This is her third year of organizing the growing event in Piscataquis County.

For Sanborn, Project Linus has held a special place in her heart because her sister Julie Johnson, a child care provider, died of cancer.

Sanborn said that before her sister’s death, she had called the national chapter and inquired about making a lap blanket in her sister’s name. Soon after that call she received a packet of information and a thank-you for organizing a chapter. So she did just that.

Sanborn’s Eastern Maine Chapter is one of four in the state. The others are the Greater Presque Isle, Houlton-Southern Aroostook and Portland, Southern and Central Maine chapters.

The busy director of the Penquis Higher Education Center in Dover-Foxcroft, Sanborn finds the time to organize the annual event, files reports, keeps track of the quilts donated throughout the year, and acts as the quality control agent to make sure the blankets are new, that straight pins have been removed and that the blankets have a clean smell.

She makes sure the blankets get to the facilities that need them, such as hospitals in the region, Camp Rainbow for children with cancer, and to bereavement programs.

“Now it’s just too important,” Sanborn said. “Kids need a hug; this is a hug from a stranger when they’re going through trauma,” she said of the blankets.

When Hurricane Katrina ravaged Louisiana and Mississippi, 18,000 lap blankets were donated by Project Linus chapters nationwide in a week.

“You want to talk about [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] needing a lesson in how to be well-organized,” Sanborn said, alluding to the department’s delayed response to the disaster.

Equally organized were those who attended Saturday’s make-a-lap-blanket day in Dover-Foxcroft.

Fed by the local Business and Professional Women organization, the women ended the day with more than 150 quilted, knitted and crocheted lap blankets neatly folded and piled on a table. Some were made by volunteers earlier in the year.

“As long as I get this kind of support, I’d be stupid to stop,” Sanborn said.