If you read our blog on a regular basis you know we help many groups. We donate our hand knit and crocheted items to 2 family shelters (The YWCA, The Homeless Families Shelter), we donate our items to 2 free clinics (that care for women and children on the West Side of town), we donate our items to Holy Family (who passes out items to those in need along with a hot meal). Lynn the lady who delivers our items to Holy Family during her volunteer hours also distributes our items to several other areas in need. One such location is Broad Street Elementary School who's children have great need. Many who attend are in fact homeless, many in dire circumstance. It's very difficult to obtain a necessary education when you cold, and hungry and fearful about where you'll be sleeping the night. Though I know we can't take care of all their needs, we can make an important difference with warm hats, scarves, and mittens for these kids.
Here's a nice note from the principal I wanted to share with you all. AND add my thanks to you, for all the work you do.
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West Broad Elementary
2744 West Broad St.
Columbus, Oh 43204
CCS Mission: Each student is highly educated, prepared for leadership and service, and empowered for success as a citizen in a global community.
October 14, 2011
To Our Friends at Bridge and Beyond,
On behalf of our students and staff, I would like to extend our sincerest gratitude for your donated hats and gloves. Our students are often deprived of clothes and essentials at home and the burden of supplying materials for all of our students becomes very costly. Your generosity and kindness will bring smiles to many students. Those students that receive your materials will surely be grateful and appreciative. It eases the minds of those students that are not prepared with warm clothes to be given them during the cold winter season. I am impressed with your dedication to the children and the neighborhood.
Again, I thank you, my staff thanks you, and most of all, the students thank you.
Sincerely,
Pete Kurty, Principal
and
The staff and students of
West Broad Elementary School
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*this is a cut and paste of an email attachment I received, so the spacing is a little off, but I wanted you all to see it*
Highland Elementary School is another school in need that our friend Lynn made a delivery too. Additionally, some donations went to St. Vincent DePaul in Vinton County. Vinton County is one of 29 counties in the state that fall into the Appalachian area. These area's are the poorest in the state. I am hoping donations will continue at such a level that we can continue to spread our wings like this and go "beyond". Vinton is in the brown area when you look at the above map. Franklin, is the county where our clinics, shelters, and Bridge folks are ...that's the orange area.
Asking everyone who reads this today....Please tell at least one person about our cause. Tell them in person, tell them in an email, tell them about it through Facebook, your blog, Twitter. Thank you!
October is mitten month, let's see if we can boast those numbers, still a little bit of time left in the month; though please remember..........we collect them all year long.
November's focus will, Jack Otis Memorial Month, please keep checking in (men will be the focus).
2011 Donations:
Scarves 355
Hats 735
Mitts 142
Socks 135
Squares 515
Rain Ponchos 84
Cotton Washcloths 324
Sweaters/Poncho's 7
Slippers 90
Afghans 40 (2 sent to our friends at Pine Street)
Misc Items I've not counted misc items like all the personal care items, the neck warmers, head bands or yarn etc.
**Reminders:
Include a note with your donation
Do not tie and cut when changing yarn, leave several inches and weave in your ends
Avoid open lacy stitches, general rule of thumb if you can poke your finger throw the stitches, they aren't as warm as they could be.
Avoid white as much as possible, shows dirt too easily
Lots of info in FAQ and Before you donate
All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated, and all donations keep someone warm. We help, one stitch at a time. YOU truly DO make a difference. THANK YOU!
Reading this passage made my heart ache for those children in need.
ReplyDeleteI am so thankful to be a part of giving to this cause even though I have not provided much far. I will so in the future.
I am also thankful for those that can produce the hats, gloves and mittens for school age children. I predominately, right now, crochet for the homeless men. Eventually, I will try my hand at the smaller sizes.
This is a great cause that you have.
How awesome. Love that you've gathered knitters from around the country to help these children and all the others that are staying warm due to your efforts.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing Sandy. I live in Washington County - in the light green section to the right of the orange and brown. We are considered Appalachia as are most of the counties surrounding us I think? We are very rural and I sometimes feel that more rural areas don't have the access to some of the support services that more urban areas may have, so I am sure the donations to Vinton county were well-appreciated. My kids are HS or out now, but when they were in grade school, we donated store-bought mittens and gloves and loom-knit hats to the school/teachers themselves. Many of the teachers try to supply from their own pocket what winter warmth they can and really appreciated the help in the way of donations. Sorry for longwinded, but my daughter got us started doing this when one day she forgot her mittens and her friend had an extra pair and loaned them to her. From then on, my daughter has carried 2 pair of gloves/mittens because the kids weren't allowed to go out to recess if they didn't have mittens and hats and she knew how important recess could be. My heart breaks thinking of cold kids or kids who have to sit inside while everyone else is outside because they don't have something that I take for granted. The donations of this Blog really do make a difference, in more ways than any of us may know. As a Buckeye, thank you for helping my neighbors and larger community.
ReplyDeleteThank you Sherry, Rachele, and psmflowerlady. We all feel so much for the children, so I wanted to share the nice thank you. In truth we supply far more children then we do for adult males, so please Sherry don't stop making the larger sizes. We need the larger sizes for the men who are outdoors all the time. And we need the adult sizes for the parents at the 2 family shelters. We will continue to supply items for men, women, and children. We began with supplying the men who live outdoors...their need was the greatest and they are always the group most over looked. So, please folks keep doing what you're doing...don't switch to only supplying items for children.
ReplyDeletePosting this comment via cut and paste from an email. Not sure why Sally had trouble posting. She posts often...must have been something going on today.
ReplyDeleteHi Sandy,
Wanted to let you know that I tried many times to publish a comment on the blog tonight and was unsucessful. So I am e-mailing you my thoughts instead:
Sandy, just wanted to thank you for the visual. It is so helpful to see where my (our) donations are going! I also wanted to let you know that tomorrow I will be putting a package in the mail. It contains mittens that I have knitted. They were made with men in mind. Some for BIG men. I am sure you will be able to put them to good use! Also the package contains 8 toothbrushes that I purchased. I am sure you will find a home for them also. Thank you so much, Sandy, for all you do. You are and angel to many!!
Bear Hugs,
Sally
PS Please let me know when my package arrives! THANKS!!
Thanks Sally, will be on the lookout and love that you made items for men.
ReplyDeleteThat's a fantastic note from the principal! It's always wonderful knowing that you've made such a great impact on the lives of people in need. =)
ReplyDeleteIt is nice Anna to know what we all do does truly matter.
ReplyDelete