Delivering Donations to the Homeless

A cute veggie tray I spotted on Facebook last year and saved a picture of on my computer.  In case you're looking for ideas for an up coming Christmas gathering.  We're all busy this time of the year, shopping, wrapping, cooking and baking for the special holidays.  It is truly a special time of the year, but not everyone get's to celebrate with loved ones.  Some are lonely, some are cold, some are hungry.  Please think of those less fortunate as you go about your busy day to day preparations for the up coming holidays.

A bit behind here posting, but wanted to share.  In the past 10 days we, Bridge and Beyond have made 3 deliveries of our handmade goodies to help those in need.  I delivered 4 or 5 bags of goodies to Rae.  Rae, as some of you know is our friend who prepares and delivers hot meals to our Homeless Friends on Saturday mornings.  The hats, scarves, socks,mittens, slippers and personal care items should be a big help to those living out in the elements.

A few days later, a delivery (2 bags) was made to Brandi, a new friend.  Brandi is very involved with missions through her Church, Groveport United Methodist Church that cares for seniors in need at several Nursing Homes.  You may remember we recently had a donation of very pretty pastel lacy scarves that I thought would be better suited for such a situation.  Brandi will delivery those for us.  Often people in nursing homes are forgotten, families don't visit or live too far away to visit frequently.  Being inactive which happens in nursing homes makes it hard to stay warm.  Shawls and scarves will be just the ticket.  While these folks may not be homeless in the traditional sense of the word, they are in fact...not in their homes, so I do hope you all are fine with my extending our help in this direction when appropriate.    I also passed on some darling hats for babies and young toddlers not well suited for our homeless mission and she will see that those get into hands of someone appropriate.  Brandi and I look forward to continuing to work together.

Several days ago I made yet another delivery.  My car was loaded to the gills and then some!  Hats, scarves, mittens, slippers, cotton washcloths and personal care items were delivered to Homeless Families Foundation.  My entire trunk was full.  It was quite cold the day I made the delivery and as I made multiple trips carrying in the items I saw many cold folks walking about in the area in need of warm items.  Even during non business hours, Homeless Families reaches out to those in need by leaving warm items in an entry way between 2 doors where they have easy access.

Thank you all for making these 3 recent deliveres, as well as all the others through the course of the year possible.

PLEASE KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK AND KNOW YOUR DONATIONS ARE TRULY NEEDED AND APPRECIATED.

**For anyone new to the blog, the counting below maybe confusing.  When 2016 began, we started with the number of items donated the previous year and are counting down in hopes of hitting and surpasses the number of items donated last year.**


2016 DONATIONS:
Hats:   +11(Look we've past last years mark)
Scarves:  +171 (We've past last years mark)
Mittens/Gloves/Wrist Warmers: 42
Slippers:   16
Rain Poncho's:   +106 (We past last years mark)
Cotton Washcloths:  244
Afghans:  1 (wow folks, we're almost even with last year, so let's see how far beyond it we can go)
Socks:   82
Cowls/Hoody Combo's, headbands:  0  YIPPEE, we've hit last years mark!
Shawls and shrugs, ponchos, sweaters & vests etc +1 +1=+2
Misc: items like personal care, headbands etc and things don't fit into above categories aren't counted

All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated. The Power of One is awesome, and when we work together The Power of One becomes The Power of Many.

Delivery to Homeless Families Foundation

Sharing a cute post with you all, knowing it will have you nodding your head, just as it did me when I first saw it on Facebook.

Folks, it's taken me a full week to catch up on opening, documenting, and photographing all your wonderful donations that came while I was away.  I focused on getting the boxes opened, items counted, and bagged in order to make a delivery today to Homeless Families Foundation.  My car was truly full.  The backseat and the trunk.  The good folks there helped me make multiple trips to and from the car and were most excited and appreciative of all your labors, your talent, and your big hearts.  To say our items were well received would be an understatement.  The nights have turned quite cool and so getting those warm hats, scarves,slippers, and mittens delivered was a top priority.   Even though the wonderful donations haven't yet been posted here to the blog they have been delivered and will soon be providing relief to those in need' as well as the personal care items, socks, cotton washcloths, and of course The Afghans!

Thank you all for making these important deliveries possible.

Stay tuned for blog post with donations from: Sandie P, Emily K, Damaris, Sandra R, Nikki S, Christina D, Susie J, and Mary H.

**We started our list of donations this year, with the numbers we ended with last calendar year and so are counting backwards.  So the numbers listed for example show we only need to knit and or crochet 74 more hats to reach the number we donated last year**

2016 DONATIONS:
Hats:     74
Scarves: 70-1=69
Mittens/Gloves/Wrist Warmers:  66
Slippers:   36
Rain Poncho's:   +106
Cotton Washcloths:  274
Afghans:  5-1=4
Socks:   108
Cowls/Hoody Combo's, headbands:   7
Shawls and shrugs, ponchos, sweaters & vests etc 0
Misc: items like personal care, headbands etc and things don't fit into above categories aren't counted.

All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated. The Power of One is awesome, and when we work together The Power of One becomes The Power of Many.

Working for the Homeless

As most of you know, I've been out of town.  Hubby and I managed to escape the last 2 snow storms by getting out of dodge...heading to a warmer part of the country, South Carolina.  While it's not bathing suit weather, and I came back just as un-tanned as before....it is a nice break from ice, freezing rain, and snow.  It's a nice break from having to scrape the car windows.  Our homeless friends don't get that break though, they are truly stuck.  As I sip hot coffee, wearing a fleece indoors and wait for the house to warm up from the night time setting of 55; I considered myself blessed and lucky.  I have a roof over my head, warm clothes, and I was able to take a breather...the weather is tiring...even with a roof over your head.  Imagine how both physically and mentally our homeless around the country feel.

Thank you for this welcome home present.  These boxes represent knitted and crocheted kindness from many pairs of helping hands.  You who spend your time, talent, money, and energy caring for others...people you will never meet face to face are truly a special kind of person.  I value you all so very much.  In the days to follow you'll see the beautiful and thoughtful donations from: RoseMarie from Tennessee, Barbara F from New York, SSeger from Michigan, Dorothy M from Virginia, Cheryl B from Ohio, Susan Alcover from Florida, and Sara G from Pennsylvania.

Please keep your hands and yarn busy folks, it's only 20 here today with colder temps in the horizon, and possibly more snow in the next 2-3 days.

Spent almost the entire day yesterday opening, photographing, and counting the donations.  Sent out email and Facebook thanks and notifications.  Today will be spent writing and scheduling blog posts, and making a delivery to Homeless Families Foundation.  Took me 4 or 5 trips to get all the bags in the car........it is really loaded.  The trunk is full and part of the backseat folks!  An awesome and much needed donation thanks to you all.

Keep up the good work.

I'm currently working on 2 afghans, one knitted and one crocheted.  What are you all working on for Bridge and Beyond?

All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated. The Power of One is awesome, and when we work together The Power of One becomes The Power of Many.

High School Seniors Help with Deliveries

Meet Emily and Anna (left to right).  These two Whetstone High School Seniors are involved in a senior project involving homeless.  They'll be presenting a written report, and a slide show/video/ and or power point presentation as part of their required service project.  Whetstone happens to be the high school I graduated from way back in the dark ages, 1969.  Their project is complex.  They're too discuss how the problem came to be, and what might be done to help the situation.  In addition to the research they've been doing they've been knitting.  Anna taught Emily so they can both knit and donate scarves to Bridge and Beyond.  

To gain a better understanding of the organization process, how families come to and are cared for through Homeless Families Foundation, and move onto permanent housing after being in the shelter system they accompanied me to see first hand how the process works.  As you can see, we had the car loaded to gills with wonderful hand knit and crocheted donations as well as personal care items.

Wave hello here to cute little Xavier.  You see, he was there "helping" as Homeless Families was packing up, preparing to move and cleaning house.  I think he was dusting the insides of the file cabinet.  lol  The girls got a first hand look at how and where things happen to assist families.  They  got lots of questions answered from Karie, the Community Liason.  

Karie also gave us an overview of the new facility which should be operational in about a month.  

Thank you Karie for your time, and thank you Emily and Anna for your assistance with delivery.  It's appreciated.  Looking forward to seeing you again and learn how your projects are coming along.

I love knowing young people are doing such worthwhile things.  Well done ladies!

2013 Donation Totals:

Hats:  319
Scarves: 247
Socks: 152
Afghans: 15
Slippers: 112
Rain Ponchos: 202
Mittens: 22
Cotton Wash Clothes: 212
Shawls, Sweaters, Vests, Poncho's: 4
Misc. Items: include personal care, headbands, handwarmers, cowls/gators and all meal prep related items, etc aren't tabulated

***and this blog post is #997 just 3 post away from 1,000. I'm announcing a contest right now. Starting today and (March 23rd) running through the 1,000th post. Everyone who visits and the blog and leaves a comment on the blog will have their name entered into a hat....I will draw a name or names......depending on how many entries we have and the winners will receive...............goodies. I'll leave it at that, goodies. Now who doesn't like to win something? Help us celebrate our longevity and this milestone blog post.***

All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated. The Power of One is awesome, and when we work together The Power of One becomes The Power of Many.

Mitten Excitement and Deliveries

I'm excited to report that I spotted at least 3 people making mittens. YIPEE. I spotted mittens done and in the works on Bunny's, Therese, and Crochet Princess's blogs. How cool is that folks! Looking forward to their accomplishments in that area. I've started 2 pairs. The first knitted pair, I frogged; but I've not thrown in the towel. Working on a crocheted pair -- think I'm about 1/3 done with the first one, and working on a knitted pair (partway through the ribbing for the cuff on the first mitt). Both of these require counting and seem to be a little tough on my carpal tunnel so am going back and forth between them and other things. Perhaps as I get more comfortable with the pattern etc, I'll be more relaxed and that will help the carpal tunnel.

Deliveries...I've lost track of some dates, will get with Rae and see if I can back into them. But, I can tell you Jan passed off a large donation to Rae this past Thursday (which was her 4th delivery...I think), and yesterday I handed off our 5th delivery to Jan. I believe Jan might see Rae to pass those on again tomorrow. Will see if I can get dates of her deliveries to our folks under the bridge.

I know people are out there working on items and some are in route to us, all of which is very much appreciated. We had some freezing rain earlier today, trees and walks etc. covered with ice; then it warmed up just a degree or two and some of it melted. If our focast is accurate, we're expecting snow later tomorrow....so you see your thoughtful and warm donations are truly needed.

Many thanks for you all, your hooks, your needles, and most of all your caring heart.

Sandy