Sharon Schneider, dressed as Mrs. Claus, tugs at Steve Garcia's mustache as his father, Dr. Alfredo Garcia, looks on Tuesday at Benbrook Medical Center Cancer Center in Butler Township.

BUTLER TWP — Mrs. Claus has been busy handing out more than 1,000 stockings in Butler County.

Wearing fluffy clothes in reds and whites, Sharon Schneider delivered stockings Wednesday to patients at Butler Health System Radiation Oncology, 104 Technology Drive, Butler.

Schneider hand-delivered each stocking to a patient from the building's cancer support group, run by Stacy Myers, a BHS medical social worker.

“This is a very hard time for patients and their families,” Myers said. “This is just a happy moment for them.”

Schneider said she has seven people who help deliver the stockings, which are filled with a range of items, including mittens, lotions, snacks and blankets.

“We are seeing to it that each patient gets a stocking,” Schneider said. “Some of them rip into these stockings like kids at Christmas time.”

Schneider said she and her “elves” visited UPMC Passavant in Cranberry Township on Monday, and they have plans to deliver stockings to BHS Crossroads Campus and Concordia Lutheran Ministries.

Schneider said community members donated all the items to stuff a total of 1,029 stockings. In some instances the community offered more than gifts.

“Some of them have beautiful letters of support,” Schneider said. “Every stocking has a story.”

A full story appears in Thursday's Butler Eagle.