New River Valley Project Linus

Welcome to the home page of the New River Valley (Virginia) Chapter!

~~ Mark your calendars - October 24, 2009 is the next Blanket Day! ~~

Blanket Day will be held at Grove United Methodist Church, 1020 Tyler Ave, Radford, VA from 9 AM - 3 PM. Material and other supplies are provided. Refreshments will be served. Feel free to bring your own sewing machine although machines will be provided. When turning in blankets, please make sure all pins are removed and your name and address is affixed to your blankets (mailing labels work great!). See you there!

Thanks to all who participated in Blanket Day on May 30! A total of 51 people attended this event. A total of 150 blankets were collected and/or made at Blanket Day. Pictures of the event are on the News link. Thank you so much to Grove United Methodist Church for always hosting our Blanketeers!

New River Valley Project Linus Blanket totals (revised 4/09):
Total blankets donated since June 2000: 13,852.
For the period January-March 2009: 797 blankets were made and 591 blankets were distributed to needy children.

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Fantastic News! Project Linus NRV Chapter is the happy recipient of a $1,000 grant from Wal Mart! This will go such a long way in purchasing material and yarn for many more blankets to comfort children in the New River Valley.

From left to right: Brenda Bias-Store Manager, Penny Sweet-Project Linus Coordinator for the NRV, Pam Linkous-Dept. Manager and Sherman Bouldin- Training Coordinator

Special thanks to Radford Christian Church C.W.F. for their donation to NRV Project Linus that was received on February 18, 2009. We appreciate your generous donation and thank you for supporting this great cause!

The Dublin Baptist Church quilting group donated 25 blankets to NRV Project Linus! Penny met with the ladies on January 29, 2009. Thanks so much for sharing your talents with us!

NRV Project Linus received a grant for $500 from the Community Foundation of the New River Valley! The check was presented to Penny Sweet at the annual NRV Community Foundation fund raiser auction on December 5, 2008. Thank you so much for supporting our organization.

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Recycle your old cell phones!!! Help Project Linus raise money for materials by recycling your phone through our organization. Drop-off locations are as follows: Grace Episcopal Church, Ferguson Enterprises, Grove United Methodist Church, St. Albans Hospital, Michele and Company, or contact Penny Sweet.
Each cell phone donated will be turned in for CASH for NRV Project Linus!

DONATIONS REQUESTED: Project Linus will always accept donations of appropriate material, yard and batting. Also, cash donations are greatly appreciated. All of the material is purchased or donated. Donations can be made to honor someone's birthday, anniversary, holidays, etc. If you do this, an acknowledgment of the donation will be sent at your request. Please contact Penny Sweet for more information.

Drop-off points - If you have completed blankets but cannot make it to Blanket Day, you can drop off blankets at the following locations:
Jo-Ann Fabrics, Christiansburg and Roanoke. Coffee Buy the Book, 10 W. Main St., Pulaski - Owner - Tracey Harriman - Phone 980-4424; Michele & Co. Hair Salon, 700 B 1st St., Radford, - Phone 633-2987.
Please be sure that blankets are labeled with your information!

If you would like to sign up for the New River Valley Project Linus e-mail notifications of upcoming events such as Blanket Days, special sale offers, etc., please click here.

Sign up for the National Project Linus Newsletter, the Blanket Beacon. Go to www.projectlinus.org and click on the Newsletter link. Once you sign up, you will automatically receive the quarterly newsletter. (We are no longer distributing a local version of a newsletter since the one from Project Linus contains such wonderful information that we could never replicate.)

Sewing Machine Repair: Jo-Ann Fabrics in Christiansburg is also a drop-off point for sewing machine repair by Pence's Sewing Center. You can drop off your machine, you will be called with an estimate and when the machine is repaired, you can pick it up at Jo-Ann's. Call Pence's Sewing Center, 304-327-8414 (Bluefield) if you have any questions.

Facts about Project Linus.....

Karen Loucks started Project Linus on December 24, 1995. The New River Valley Chapter began in June of 2000.
Project Linus has been alive for 4,785 days as of January 1, 2009.
Project Linus has had nonprofit status since May 12, 1997.
Project Linus has officially collected 2,493,964 blankets as of June 30, 2008. If 60% of them are fabric, that translates into about 3,586,819 yards of fabric. If 40% are afghans, that is about 9,576,822 skeins of yarn.
The New River Valley Chapter of Project Linus has delivered locally 13,261 blankets since June of 2000!
Most importantly, that means that 2,493,964 kids were comforted by our blankets across the nation.
If each blanket is an average of 60 inches long, and we laid them end to end, they would stretch 12,469,820 feet or 2,362 miles. That is as tall as 429 Mt. Everests, or 9,216 Sears Towers, or as long as 41,566 football fields.
Assuming each delivered blanket so far had a label, the cost for labels would be $872,887.
As of January 1, 2009, Project Linus has 400 chapters in the United States. We have 400 wonderful, compassionate coordinators.
If each of our 400 wonderful compassionate coordinators donates an average of 20 hours per week to their chapter, that would mean about 1,040 hours per year each. And that’s just coordinators!
Even at minimum wage, 20 hours per week is a salary of $7,800 in donated time per year, per coordinator. If you are talking about 400 wonderful, compassionate coordinators, it is a value of $3,166,800 per year.

Local Proud Supporters of NRV Project Linus:

Jo-Ann Fabrics & Crafts, 2625 Market Street, Christiansburg, VA; Phone: 540-382-9225. This store has been a wonderful support to Project Linus! They serve as a drop-off point for our blankets, hand out flyers announcing upcoming blanket days, and always make sure that Penny Sweet has plenty of fabric to continue making blankets for needy children!

Fancy Gap Outlet, 350 Pottery Dr. Fancy Gap, VA 24328; Phone: 276-728-9524. Take Exit 8 off I-77. You can get great deals on cotton fabric. Thanks for your support of Project Linus! If you find yourself down there, make sure to let them know you are buying fabric for Project Linus.

Sew Sophisticated located in Blacksburg, VA.

Sew Biz, 92 & 94 Harvey St. Radford, VA, 540-639-1138.

Nancy's Beauty Shop, 706 Forest Ave. Radford, VA ,540-633-2105. Purses made by Penny Sweet for Project Linus are also being sold at Nancy's!

Michele & Co. Hair Salon, 700 B 1st St., Radford, VA 540-633-2987

School House Fabrics, 220 N. Locust St., Floyd, VA 540-745-4561

Visit the National Web site for Project Linus: http://www.projectlinus.org

Exciting News! “Komfort Kids,” a new fabric collection designed exclusively for Project Linus by Patrick Lose, will soon be available for purchase at Sewbiz! Project Linus will receive 8% of all wholesale sales of the fabric. The estimated arrival at Sewbiz is late July or early August. In the meantime, you can click here to see a preview of this wonderful fabric! We will post a message here when the fabric has arrived at Sewbiz.

Yarn Available: The store manager at the Roanoke Joanne's Fabric Store has donated a large amount of yarn to NRV Project Linus (from her own supply!) Please let Penny know if you would like some yarn.