Merry Christmas to You

This seems like it was only yesterday..............but it was really quite some time back. My DD had breakfast here with Santa. She loved to dress up all Christmasey, most little girls do. Lots of good memories from when she was young, and as she grew up; but this picture is one of my favorites so thought I'd share it with you. Bet you all have a similiar one of you, your children, or your grandchildren sitting on Santa's lap.

Merry Christmas to you all and many thanks for all you've done through out the year with your magical crochet hooks and knitting needles and looms. You've made hats, scarves, mittens, slippers, washcloths, and squares. You've sent rain ponchos and socks, you've donated yarn. You've blogged about our cause, tweeted about our cause, and facebooked about our cause. I hope you've chatted about what we do here with your friends, your neighbors and family who might not be on the internet. As the year winds down, let me express my Christmas wish for a continuation of the same, a Christmas wish for more helping hands, to grow our numbers of donated items and reach more people in need.

Blessings to you all, and please Keep up the Good Work.

2011 Donations:

Scarves 463
Hats 939
Mittens 253
Socks 333
Squares 849
Rain Ponchos 216
Cotton Washcloths 340
Sweaters/Poncho's 10
Slippers 115
Afghans 50 (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, shawl, hot packs, or yarn etc.

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!

St. Vincent de Paul

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is dedicated to assisting those in need. The group is named for a priest, Vincent dePaul 1581-1660, who dedicated his life to serving the poor.

You might remember me chatting/blogging about our friend Lynn whom I met at a sausage party here in the neighborhood about this time last year. She helps us by delivering our donations to Holy Family, and several at need grade schools. Additionally, she helped us spread our wings beyond the boundaries of this county, Franklin with a connection and friend she has in Vinton County. Vinton Co is a very poor county, in Appalachia. Through St. Vincent de Paul our hand knit and hand crocheted and loomed items have warmed more people in need.

I received a little note of thanks in email from Rosemary Savely, and wanted to pass along to you her appreciation for helping those in need in Vinton Co who's poverty rate is quite high. I'm not able to post the note here, due to names being mentioned.

Just know your work is valued, appreciated and so much needed. Keep up the good work.

2011 Donations:

Scarves 459
Hats 934
Mittens 253
Socks 333
Squares 675
Rain Ponchos 216
Cotton Washcloths 339
Sweaters/Poncho's 10
Slippers 115
Afghans 46 (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, shawl, hot packs, or yarn etc.

WOW....think we might hit 1,000 hats before the end of the year? And or 500 scarves?? Wouldn't that be cool!


**PLEASE
Notice the new items on the blog such as a working calendar for part of the upcoming year of 2012, the search this blog feature moved up in a more prominent space on the blog, the guidelines for squares, the things to read Before you donate, the area with details about the people we help, and more. Updates are on going...please, please keep reading.

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!

Holy Family

This note may not be real easy to read, as I had to scan it as a picture in order to load it. However, wanted to share with you this hand written thank you from Frances Carr the director of Holy Family. Sadly, this note got tucked into my file before I posted about it...thus the date of October 24th. Sorry for the delay in sharing it with you.

We've been able to donate since receiving this nice note and will continue to do so. Lynn, the lady I met about this time last year at the sausage party makes our deliveries for us. Thank you for the extra help, it's a time saver for me and much appreciated. If you've not read about The sausage party and how Lynn and I met...please do. Click HERE.

Holy Family was founded way back in 1877 in the historic district of Franklington. The soup kitchen and food bank was started in 1970 and prepares and serves 700 hot meals a day Monday-Friday. In addition approximately 250 families get assistance weekly from The Food Bank.

Our hand knitted, crocheted, and loomed goodies are distributed to those in need as they come in for a much needed hot meal. Thank you all for helping us grow in donated items, helping hands and blog awareness. It's wonderful to be able to help so many in need. And thank you Lynn for your help with the deliveries.

*Did you notice the search this blog feature? I've moved it up quite a bit on the blog in case you hadn't noticed it before. Would you like to read all the post that focus on Holy Family, or some other topic? Type the words you'd like to search and you'll find all the post pertaining to that. Maybe...you'd like to see all the posts regarding your donations in order to make yourself a list...type in your name and a listing of those posts will come up.*

2011 Donations:

Scarves 454
Hats 931
Mittens 253
Socks 333
Squares 675
Rain Ponchos 216
Cotton Washcloths 339
Sweaters/Poncho's 10
Slippers 110
Afghans 46 (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, shawl, hot packs, or yarn etc.

The month of December is half over, for those who like to look ahead I've added January, February, and March of 2012 to our working calendar so you can check out the focuses for those months. The square focus will continue through the end of this month, if you've not yet checked out the guidelines for those squares, please do before knitting, crocheting, and mailing.

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!

Homeless, Cold Children in Need THANK YOU!

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.
------------------------------------------
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
-------------------------------------------
*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!

Faith Mission accomplishing with your Help

Folks been a few days since I've posted, am still trying to play catch up after being out of town for about 10 days. PLEASE stay tuned for more beautiful thoughtful donations from your caring hands. I have boxes to open, photographs to take and blog posts to write; hoping to get rollin this afternoon.

I wanted to share this sweet email with you, as it's directed to all of you who've helped with your donated knitted, loomed, and or crocheted items throughout these past couple of years. Congratulations to each and everyone of you, and please keep up the good work!
--------------------

Dear Sandy and ALL the donors to Bridge and Beyond:

My name is Becki Duncan and I am a volunteer at Faith Mission in Columbus, Ohio. About a year ago I found information online about Bridge and Beyond. I had been knitting scarves and wanted to donate them, but I wasn't sure where to do that. When I read about Bridge and Beyond it was exactly what I had been looking for and I boxed up my scarves and sent them to Sandy. At about the same time I started volunteering at Faith Mission. So I have been lucky enough to see the direct impact that items made with so much love can have on those affected by homelessness. I just want all of you to know how much your ongoing donations and support of Faith Mission mean to everyone here. Not only the clients, but the staff and volunteers as well. At a time when there are so many people faced with unimaginable challenges, it only takes a small gesture to make all the difference in the world.

One of my favorite quotes is "Be the change you want to see in the world". Thanks to all of you for doing just that.

Much love to you all,

Becki Duncan

2011 Donations:

Scarves 246
Hats 510
Mitts 117
Socks 90
Squares 357+20=377
Rain Ponchos 58
Cotton Washcloths 275
Sweaters 5
Slippers 68
Afghans 31 (2 sent to our friends at Pine Street)

We often knit and crochet and loom for people we do not know personally, and will never meet, and we don't see them wearing our warm items, but..........they are received with open arms and so very much needed and appreciated. Thank you Becki for taking time to communicate with us.

We're a third of the way through our current month of August and it's focus of warm hats for Men, keep your hooks and needles flying.

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!

Happy New Year, LOOK What we've Accomplished!

Happy New Year One and All. Many thanks for your support throughout this year. Thank you if you blogged about our cause, Thank you if placed a badge and link on your blog, Thank you if you knitted and donated, Thank you if you crocheted and donated, Thank you if you loomed and donated, Thank you if you sent socks and personal care items, Thank you if you told a friend, a neighbor, a co-worker about our cause, Thank you if you printed one of flyers to distribute to help spread the word. THANK YOU!!

I blogged about how we began and what was accomplished in our first month-actually less of operation HERE. I posted a blog about the growth that happened in the year 2009 HERE.

And now I want to list all those helping hands in this calendar year of 2010:(because this is not something I could accomplish by myself)* in no particular order

RoseMarie, Louise, Liz (minnisoda), my Darling Daughter Christine, Sandie in Florida, Jessica, Mary in Ohio, Yarn Yokel (Jason), Dorothy in Wisc, Judy in Ohio, Jean in Ohio, Sandie in Louisiana, Ruth, Lisa, Scharlet, Krystine, James, Sacha from France, Nelda, Bunny, Linda in Florida, Frank, Becki, Sarah, Susan, Tracy, Robbie, Patty in Ohio, Margaret, Karen V, Karen A, Cindy, Taby, Pat, Peggy, Tracey (Tcara), Lex (Alexis), Gail, a 2nd Patty, Joy, Yvonne, Donna, Joyce, Cyndy, Sandra, Anne G, Kate, Alma, Emily, Chris, Shelly, Christi, Jodi, Paula, Brodie Jo, Jennifer T., Esther maddeleine4), Trudy, Jenny, Barbara N, Becky, Bonnie, Mia, Becky P, Theresa, June M, Jan, and Rae.

Sometimes with people use one name or ID on a forum or in a group, a different one if they blog, and perhaps a different yet for their email I have troubles figuring out who's who when the mail comes and has a real name. Sometimes it's taken some time to determine who's who. To date, there is still one person I was never able to identify to thank and that would be Brodie Jo. I posted here multiple times and in other groups and forums I belong to; but never did make a connection. Brodie Jo, if you're out there please know your donation was very much appreciated. If anyone knows Brodie Jo, please zap me a note, thanks.

We really grew by leaps and bounds this year with more and more helping hands, with being able to help more people I was able to add to the mission several times. How awesome is that. We're listed on many additional lists these days. I put forth a real concerted effort at spreading the news several months ago and it has really paid off with more donations coming in daily.

Here are our final numbers of donated items for the calendar year of 2010

Scarves 340
Hats 592
Mittens 151
Socks 101
Slippers 34
Ghans 10
Squares 238

We grew in number of blog posts having 185 in 2010. We had our first contest, a blog contest that our good friend Sandie in Louisiana won. We had a mitten challenge which included another mitten pattern from our good friend and long time supporter Beth which Dorothy and Jean won. We added slippers to the list of items we need, and squares through Give a Square. I'm very happy with what we've been able to accomplish, one stitch, one donation at a time. We do make a difference, an important difference every single day in someone's life. THANK YOU.

I look forward to what we can accomplish together in the upcoming year of 2011.

Please remember 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. It truly DOES make a difference. THANK YOU!

Memories of Bridge and Beyond and all YOU'VE Accomplished

As we approach the end of this year, 2010; I thought it might be fun and appropriate to see where we've been. On Dec 2, 2008 I made my first post here after putting together the blog. I envisioned a team style blog, but ran into issues with compatibility and found trying to work with it cumbersome. So very quickly changed to a regular blog, where I post but anyone can comment...member or non member, blogger or non blogger. That proved to be a good change, as we've had much help from fellow knitters and crocheters who don't happen to be fellow bloggers. Some we know from Crochetville, some from Ravelry, and some find us and make contact via email.

By December 5, 2008 one of our blog readers Sunny Fairy designed our cool blog badge. Though we no longer hear from her via blogging, we still use the cool badge she designed. Thank you very much Sunny Fairy, it is still appreciated.

In less than a week, 6 days to be exact I received the first of many emails to come asking for an address to mail donations, and clarifying how they might help the cause. I can still remember how excited I was to get those emails on Dec 8, having only started the blog on the 2nd. WOW

By December 9th, we had our first donation. Hats off to our Very Dear and long time friend, Bunny. Bunny still supports us with her talent. Many thanks! Her name is clickable if you'd like to pop over and say hi on her blog.

A few days later, I finished my first scarf for the cause.

By Dec, 31, 2008...less than one month from start up we had collected 24 scarves and 33 hats! In that time frame I had written 19 posts, and we had 100 comments.

During the first month Dec 2nd through Dec 31, 2008 The following people knitted, or crocheted and sent donations:
Bunny, Dorothy in Wisc, Frosty from Rav, Dorothy in San Antonio, Judy from Ohio, Molly, Sandie from Louisiana, and Melanie (Lil_Knitter from Rav).
I'd like to take another opportunity to say THANK YOU. It is because of you, I felt encouraged to continue to knit and crochet and blog often about our cause. It is because of you I felt encouraged to continue the fight to help homeless and those in need.

My deepest appreciation for each and every stitch you've made.
2010
Scarves 306
Hats 574
Mittens 143
Socks 80
Slippers 15
Ghans 7
Squares 133


Please remember 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. It truly DOES make a difference. THANK YOU!

Thank You, THANK YOU

Some pretty buttercups from my yard for you all on this cold snowy day
The year is coming to an end, it's cold, snowy, gray, damp and cold and in about 12 hours we'll toast The New Year, 2010.

I wanted to pass along a little note from Rae to you all. Rae said the 2 clinics have been thrilled with our donations...and, well here let me pass along that part of her note directly to you.***

We had a Christmas party at each clinic, and I believe the phrase heard the most when people were told that they could choose hats & scarves & mittens for them and their kids/spouses at home was "really, for me?" They were astounded when they found out that total strangers from around the country had hand-made these items just for them. I believe it went a long way in making them feel somehow special, if only for a moment. But I can assure you, they will remember that moment for a while, each time they go out into the cold (or don't get to come in out of the cold) and they have a scarf or a hat or some mittens that one of you has made. I can't tell you how totally awesome I think you all are ... reaching out to people you don't even know. It's truly very sweet!

I'm sure for some those hats, mittens, or scarves were all they got this Christmas and what you do DOES make a difference, one hat, one scarf, one person, and one stitch at a time.

Please keep up the good work with your needles and hooks, TOGETHER WE CAN and DO MAKE a DIFFERENCE

Peace and Happiness to you all
Sandy

I'm excited and wanted to share.

Folks, we recently hit our 1 year Anniversary, that was back on Dec 2, 2009. Our first post regarding this cause was Dec 2 08. This post is #102. I didn't notice it when I posted #100, which I think is a cool milestone.

I wanted to say thank you to all who've knitted, all who've crocheted, all who've helped by donating yarn, all who've helped some of you get your items mailed here by helping with postage, to Rae for making the deliveries, for my SIL for being our go between and hooking me up with Rae. More thanks go out to all who've made a blog post about our cause and or posted our badge to help spread the word. And thanks also go to those who sent money for socks.

I appreciate each and everyone of you. All donations are important, all are needed, and all are appreciated.

Bless you all for helping to warm another human being. Please keep up the good work.

**worked some on 2 scarves while traveling to and from St. Louis this past wkend, hoping to get them finished in the next day or so.

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

Happy Holiday Updates!

Anyone have the ability to make mittens or gloves

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with family, friends, and loved ones. If you traveled I hope your travels kept you safe and warm and without complications. Now...vacations over gang, so lets get back to work. lol I plan to drop off another (our 3rd) delivery to Jan today so stay tuned. We'll let you know when they make it to our group under the bridge. I'm hoping they're keeping dry, as the last couple of days here have been very wet.

Putting out a call for mittens and gloves...I'm anxious to try the pattern Bunny suggested, and also looking forward to the ones she has in the works. Here's the links Bunny posted for us in the previous blog note. Crocheted mittens and here's knitted mittens


My thanks to all who've joined "officially" or otherwise, those that have added our link to their blogs, blogged about our cause as well as those that have hooks and needles flying to help with their loving stitches.

You are ALL AWESOME!


***pssssssssss the knitted pattern is exciting to me because you don't need DP's to do it. Though I did just buy a set to see if I can work on DP's, I'm not ready to make that leap. However, I note a stitch called M1..backward e loop? Hum, no clue what that is, guess I need to look for a tutorial.