NILES — Last Thursday, Cristina Wilson chose a spool of colored yarn — pink, to represent her mother’s fight against breast cancer — then sat down at a loom to weave at the Niles District Library.

She slowly moved her pink yarn through another set of yarn strung on the loom, then pushed the two together using a wooden device called a beater. She repeated the steps, adding to a 3-foot-long tapestry of various colors.

“It’s going to be cool when you guys unravel it,” said Wilson to library staff as she looked at the partially created tapestry.

The library’s loom and tapestry is a community art project called “Colors of Cancer” and is part of a larger set of offerings at the library meant to share stories about cancer and raise awareness about a local cancer support organization, Berrien County Cancer Services.

Until Aug. 31, the loom will be available for any library attendant to learn and use with the help of a volunteer. Next to the loom is a list of cancers with corresponding symbolic colors. Attendees can choose colors of cancers they have been impacted by and add that colored yarn to the loom.

A gallery of artwork created by attendees of two BCCS Art Play Workshops will also be displayed.

BCCS director Nancy Church said the gallery and loom are meant connect those affected by cancer to the St. Joseph-based nonprofit.

“We’re here for them,” she said. “We’re here to take care of them. There’s no other organization like us that I found that has the skilled nursing in the homes without cost. What we have here in Berrien County is very special.”

BCCS’ nursing program is meant to help a group of cancer patients between two levels of sickness.

“The patients we see are typically going chemotherapy, but they’re not eligible for nursing in the home,” she said. “They can be very sick, but they’re still not considered homebound.”

Being homebound is often a requirement for a skilled nurse to help at home.

The programs BCCS offers extend past home visits, though. It also provides resources to people, who are not covered by medical insurance, that can be expensive to purchase or that can be hard to find, Church said.

Comfort items like wigs, turbans and prosthesis bras are offered. So, too, is medical equipment, which can be loaned, and supplies. Everything from ostomy appliances to shower chairs can be picked up.

Church said that BCCS’ location, about 22 miles away by highway from Niles, and its unique offerings sometimes make it difficult for Niles area residents to know about the organization. That is part of the reason why she helped organize the gallery and loom.

Despite its disconnect, the nonprofit has its roots in Niles. It was founded by Olive Colcord, a nurse that worked in Niles in 1948. Church herself worked as a nurse in Niles for a few years, too.

Now, the organization hosts a cancer support group at the Greater Niles Senior Center. It also hosts one of its two Art Play Workshops 15 minutes away in Buchanan.

Workshop attendees’ art is displayed at the library. Some are paintings while others are clay objects.

Attendees can be cancer patients, but they can also be family members of those affected by cancer.

“When cancer impacts you or a family, it continues to have an impact for years,” she said. “Especially with families, the whole dynamic changes, when someone in the family — whether it’s a parent or child — has cancer. It affects the other children, too, because so much focus gets put on to what needs to be taken care of because of the cancer diagnosis.”

The Art Play Workshop artwork and the Colors of Cancer community weaving project will move from their displays on Aug. 31 and head to an art festival Nov. 17 at the Box Factory for the Arts in St. Joseph. BCCS will also be present, hosting music, silent auctions and other offerings.