New River Valley Project Linus

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

** RESCHEDULED ** Blanket Day will be held on Saturday, February 20, 2010 from 9 am-3 pm Blanket Day will be held at Grove United Methodist Church, 1020 Tyler Ave, Radford, VA. 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!

Blankets for Haiti: In an email from PL Headquarters, Penny has learned that Project Linus Nationwide has teamed up with Heart to Heart International and has committed to collecting and sending 10,000 blankets to children in Haiti. Our chapter has agreed to collect and send 50 blankets. They can be knit, crocheted or cloth and any size is fine. Penny will start collecting them now and they can be dropped off at Joann Fabrics, her home, or brought to Blanket Day. The deadline for these is Feb. 15th. Be sure they are in a bag and marked for Haiti children if you wish to donate to this specific cause.

New River Valley Project Linus now has its own blog! Check it out at: http://nrvprojectlinus.blogspot.com/. We'll be posting weekly updates so be sure to log in often for the newest happenings with our local chapter.

Official Project Linus Fabric - We are happy to announce that Komfort Kids, the official Project Linus fabric, is available locally at Sew-Biz in Radford. It is manufactured by Avlyn and the pattern was designed by Patrick Lose. Avlyn has agreed to donate 8% of the sale of this fabric to Project Linus. The fabric is very nice. There is a bright colored panel and 6 coordinating colors available at Sew-Biz. Be sure to stop in to see this fabric. You can click here to see a preview of this wonderful fabric!

New River Valley Project Linus Blanket totals (revised 1/10):
Total blankets donated since June 2000: 15,704.
For the period October-December 2009: 652 blankets were made and 727 blankets were distributed to needy children.

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On October 17th, 24 members of Radford University Male and Female Track Team met at the Dedmon Center. They made over 40 blankets in 2 hours! We all had a lot of fun working together on these blankets. Thank you so much for your hard work!

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

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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, yarn, 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.

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.

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: Pence's Sewing Center, 304-327-8414 (Bluefield)

~~~~~ PROJECT LINUS....DID YOU KNOW? ~~~~~

Here are some interesting facts and figures 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 5,117 days as of January 1, 2010.
Project Linus has had nonprofit status since May 12, 1997.
Project Linus has officially collected 3,011,944 blankets as of
September 30, 2009. If 60% of them are fabric, that translates into about
5,421,499 yards of fabric. If 40% are afghans, that is about 9,638,220
skeins of yarn.
The New River Valley Chapter of Project Linus has delivered locally 14,977 blankets since June of 2000!
Most importantly, that means that 3,011,944 kids were comforted by
our blankets across the nation.
If each blanket is an average of 60" long, and we laid them end to
end, they would stretch 15,059,720 feet or 2,852 miles. That is as tall as
519 Mt. Everests, or 10,357 Sears Towers or 12,048 Empire State Buildings or as long as 50,199 football fields!
Assuming each delivered blanket so far had a label, the cost for labels would be $90,358.
As of January 1, 2010, Project Linus has 378 chapters in the
United States. We have 378 wonderful, compassionate coordinators.
If each of our 378 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 $7,280 in donated time per year, per coordinator. If you are talking about 378 wonderful, compassionate coordinators, it is a value of $2,751,840 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