Our mission: providing security through blankets...
Our mission is simple: to provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need. We do this by giving them gifts of new, handmade blankets and afghans, lovingly created for Project Linus by volunteer "blanketeers." The Blanketeers are part of our mission, as well: we seek to provide a rewarding and fun service opportunity for interested individuals and groups in local communities, for the benefit of children.
Through the upheavals great and small, affecting one family or many, people armed only with needles and hooks and fiber and fabric have been knitting, crocheting, and sewing useful and comforting things for strangers in places far way, lives far from their own even if only just across town. The gift of a blanket from someone who made it with love and care, someone who doesn't know you but knows your need to feel safe and warm and loved and cared for in a life gone crazy, who made this for you to hug and to hold and wrap yourself up in without asking anything in return, is huge. Huge enough to help these children work with their loss, help give them the strength to pick the pieces of their lives and move into what lies ahead.
Whoever said "nothing in life is free" never held a Project Linus blanket!
Through the upheavals great and small, affecting one family or many, people armed only with needles and hooks and fiber and fabric have been knitting, crocheting, and sewing useful and comforting things for strangers in places far way, lives far from their own even if only just across town. The gift of a blanket from someone who made it with love and care, someone who doesn't know you but knows your need to feel safe and warm and loved and cared for in a life gone crazy, who made this for you to hug and to hold and wrap yourself up in without asking anything in return, is huge. Huge enough to help these children work with their loss, help give them the strength to pick the pieces of their lives and move into what lies ahead.
Whoever said "nothing in life is free" never held a Project Linus blanket!
Did you know...
Here are some interesting facts and figures about Project Linus:
- Karen Loucks started Project Linus on Dec. 24, 1995. The North Bay chapter started May 2003.
- Project Linus National has had nonprofit status since May 12, 1997.
- Project Linus nationally has officially collected 3,566,285 blankets as of Sept. 30, 2010. If 60% of them are fabric, that translates into about 6,419,313 yards of fabric. If 40% are afghans, that is about 11,412,112 skeins of yarn.
- If each blanket is an average of 60” long and we laid them end to end, they would stretch 17,831,425 feet or 3,377 miles. That is as tall as 614 Mt. Everest’s or 12,264 Willis Towers (formally the Sears Tower) or 14,265 Empire State Buildings or as long as 59,438 football fields!!
- The North Bay Chapter (us) has donated 6,918 blankets since 2003 and 1,724 blankets in 2010.
- As of January 1, 2011, Project Linus has 371 chapters in the U.S.. We have 371 wonderful, compassionate coordinators.
Where our blankets go...
Afghanistan Children • Boys & Girls Club • C.A.R.E. Carousel Fund • CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) • Catholic Charities Family Support Center • C.O.T.S. (Committee on The Shelterless) • Foster Care • Four C's Preschool • Kaiser - Oncology Unit • Kathy's Camp • Kidney Camps • Kids Street Learning Center • Life2Orphans • Marin General • Marin Hospice • Memorial Hospice • Memorial Hospital, Santa Rosa • My Stuff Bags Foundation • Palm Drive Hospital, Sebastopol • Petaluma Fire Dept. • Petaluma Hospice • Petaluma Police Dept. • Petaluma Valley Hospital • Pt. Reyes Fire Dept. • Redwood Children's Clinic • Ronald MacDonald House • Sonoma County Maternity Clinic • Southwest Children's Health Center • St. Helena Hospital • St. Vincent School for Boys • Sunny Hills Home for Children • Sutter Hospital • True To Life Children's Services • Tsunami victims • UCSF Medical Center • Valley of the Moon Children's Home • West Marin Resource Center • Windsor Fire Dept. • Women's Recovery Services • YWCA Shelter for Battered Women
