“People really support what we’re doing,” Leach said. “Now we just started building our supply.”
Leach founded the nonprofit in 2023, after her friend Luette Cowell passed away of West Nile Virus. Cowell also had a passion for charity. Together, Leach and Cowell sewed hundreds of reusable feminine hygiene products, which could be donated to areas of the world that didn’t have reliable access to disposable supplies.
Over the first year the charity has been operating, several women have joined to help, all bringing their own skills in sewing, knitting, crocheting, and crafting. Now, the group meets twice a week to make fleece blankets, hats, nursing pads, stuffed animals, and other products that are donated within the Dayton area and around the world.
“Everybody here is doing (God-Inspired Stitches) from the heart, giving their time,” Leach said.
Volunteers give even more than their time. Most of the supplies Leach and her group uses were donated or bought by members. Leach herself goes out to purchase supplies with her own money, and occasional donations from church and community members. She said that staff at Jo-Ann Fabrics already know her as a “Bargain Betty.”
But using her crafting skills to help people has always been a passion for Leach.
“She always did God-Inspired Stitches; it just wasn’t named that yet,” said Jenny Steyn, a volunteer with the group.
When Leach and Cowell were working together to make menstrual pads for disadvantaged countries, Cowell set a goal to make 1000. Leach was determined to help Cowell reach that goal. Even as Leach was recovering from her own surgeries, she would ask Cowell to bring her more supplies.
“Luette said, ‘Don’t you ever quit?’” Leach said. “She’d bring me another case of materials and I’d sew some more.
Shortly before Cowell passed away, she and Leach succeeded in sewing an assembling all 1000 pads. After helping Cowell, Leach was inspired to continue that charity work, and founded God-Inspired Stitches while dealing with her own ongoing health problems.
Leach was in a wheelchair for 18 years and has had surgeries on her knees, back, shoulders and elbows. Most recently, she had surgery on her hand, and says she will need another knee surgery in the near future. But she doesn’t let health problems prevent her from crafting for charity.
“You just get mended back together and keep going,” Leach said. “Nothing will ever stop me”
Leach was nominated as a Dayton Daily News Community Gem by her friend Marcia Ehlers, who herself was featured in a 2021 Community Gem for work she did when she worked at Good Neighbor House.
Ehlers recalls meeting Leach through a mutual friend, with their first-ever phone call lasting over two hours.
“[Dianne] has a way of laughing and making you feel better about whatever’s going on with your day,” Ehlers said. “She puts other people first.”
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