AGAWAM – Mary Ann Dietschler has been making wreaths for her home for years, but now, she is doing far more than decorating.     

Dietschler turned her hobby into Wreaths with a Reason. Her work provides a chance to donate and bring attention to Operation Underground Railroad, an organization that performs rescue operations for children who have been sold into slavery or are victims of human trafficking.

A friend sent her information about Operation Underground Railroad about four years ago. She had taken up an interest in the Underground Railroad, wondering what she would have done if she were alive to see slavery in the United States.

“I thought, ‘What would I have done?’ My ideal-self says I would have hidden them. My real-self says I would have chickened out and done nothing, but it bothered me,” Dietschler said.

She saw helping Operation Underground Railroad as an opportunity to be a “modern-day abolitionist” and decided to test the waters with wreath making for a cause.

Since April 2014, she hasn’t looked back.

Dietschler has had people stop by her home asking about wreaths, shipped them to California, Arizona and Florida and accepted donated supplies from the community, especially the students of her yoga class at the Agawam Senior Center.

Volunteers attend tag sales to purchase supplies and are often told to take them at no cost. Local stores offer Dietschler a discount to purchase what she needs.

The community support has been tremendous, she said.     

What makes her cause stand out, she said, is that every cent goes to Operation Underground Railroad, and more than $7,000 has been donated so far. Dietschler even asks that checks be made out directly to the organization.

“I feel God has really blessed us, and I don’t need to make extra money doing it. It’s really a labor of love. It really is,“ she said.

The organization published a story about Wreaths with a Reason on its website, and that is when she started receiving orders from across the country.

“They were going to give to them anyhow,” Dietschler said. “You get a tax deduction and you get a wreath. It’s like a win-win no brainer situation.”

Most of the wreaths price out at around $50, though she has some smaller decorative brooms for $20. She just asks customers to donate an extra $5 to put towards supplies.

Each wreath takes about three or four hours to craft. She also offers cornucopias, brooms and baskets. Dietschler said she has two or three people over once a week to work on putting them together.

“We actually get more than we give. The process of making something is so therapeutic,” she said. “We get together, talk and visit. It’s a relaxing night where we get together, make wreaths and talk if we feel like talking. If we don’t, we don’t.”

Dietschler said over the years she has received compliments about the wreath that hangs on her own front door. A mix of coral, yellow, white and green to offset her olive colored door, Dietschler said once she starts, creativity can take over. The wall of her garage is covered with different wreaths – autumn colors and Fourth of July themed.

Though she is always looking for “inspiration” in magazines, she is happy and open to make wreaths at a customer’s request.

Dietschler said Wreaths with a Reason is her small way to help a big problem.

“People read about these problems and they think that’s terrible, but what can I do? I’m one person,” she said. “A lot of people feel that way, but you can see, one person can make a difference … It might seem like a drop in the bucket, but they’re doing what they can do, and so am I.”

For more information about Wreaths with a Reason, visit www.wreathswithareason.com or call Dietschler at 218-6231.

For more information about Operation Underground Railroad, visit https://ourrescue.org/.