After knee surgery, the Rev. Donna Steckline saw the benefits of her parish’s All Blessings Flow ministry firsthand.
All Blessings Flow (ABF), which provides durable medical goods for those who need them, has been a ministry of Trinity Episcopal Church in Arrington, Virginia, for nearly three years.
Steckline said that she and a new deacon at the time of the founding had been talking about developing a ministry involving durable medical goods. The deacon suggested the idea based on her experiences of having excess supplies after the deaths of her parents.
When Steckline mentioned the idea at a vestry meeting, a member told her to check with Annie Dodd in Charlottesville, who was already operating a similar ministry.
That was the beginning of a successful partnership.
Dodd and her husband launched ABF in 2015, becoming incorporated in 2017. Like the circumstances of the deacon working with Steckline, Dodd found herself with a substantial quantity of specialized medical equipment and supplies but no place to donate them.
“I learned that many others had similar experiences,” Dodd said. “Through my healthcare contacts, I discovered individuals who urgently needed the items I possessed but were unable to obtain them due to lack of insurance or financial hardship.”
According to Dodd, the program aims to promote health equity and improve rural healthcare access by delivering services to underserved populations in five counties surrounding Charlottesville.
Included in the greater service area is the mobile unit site in Lovingston, Virginia, which is operated by Steckline’s congregation. It was one of the first mobile sites.
The group initially set up in a parking lot of a Food Lion grocery store every Monday from 10 to noon.
Now, more opportunities will meet the people of Nelson County because All Blessings Flow is planning to move into a building in Lovingston. At the new location, ABF will share space with a thrift shop and be available more hours a week.
Steckline said there are many advantages to this new opportunity.
“They [ABF in Charlottesville] will supply us with more stock,” Steckline said. “We have our own methods of cleaning and refurbishing” the items that are brought in.
If a deep cleaning or repair is needed, there are other sources to help with those needs.
The parishioners of Trinity are the core of the volunteers, with two to three people volunteering each week. There are volunteers from other churches, and occasionally others will help as well.
“There is one lady, who was a client, who got well enough and wanted to serve,” Steckline said.
The list of what is donated and distributed is long. “We give out just about anything you can imagine — baby monitors, bed pads, Depends, crutches, walkers, hospital beds, Hoyer lifts, shoe horns,” Steckline said.
Many of the people who borrow home medical supplies will return them for someone else to use.
Steckline is full of stories about what happens on All Blessings Flow day. Her favorite centers on a young boy who needed a walker.
A physical therapist visited the ABF site to pick up a walker for a child. “My heart just broke looking at it and knowing some child needed a walker. My heart was crushed,” Steckline recalled.
The volunteers had no details about the boy, but 45 minutes later, they received a video that showed him with a smile from ear to ear.
“It gives me the chills that we can be the conduit to people that have these needs,” Steckline said. “It is very, very beautiful.”
In 2024, 307 people (140 from Nelson County and 167 from the community of Arrington) were served by ABF in that region. This site also has a volunteer from Trinity who is a registered nurse who takes blood-pressure checks and provides health education.
What began as a grassroots organization serving 199 clients and their families has grown to serving more than 9,500 clients in 2024. According to Dodd, ABF has served more than 36,000 families and distributed more than 145,000 items of medical equipment and supplies since 2015. The value of the items distributed tallies to more than $10 million. Further, Dodd said, ABF has repurposed more than 1.3 million pounds of material, preventing it from gathering dust or ending up in local landfills.
The Rev. Meredyth Albright is a longtime journalist and rector of St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church in Rhinelander, Wisconsin.
