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Our next Blanket Day is September 21, 2019 at Grove United Methodist Church, 1020 Tyler Avenue, Radford, VA. It will be held from 9AM – 3PM. Materials will be provided. Please bring completed blankets to this event. Labeling your blankets with your name is appreciated. 

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Hello Friends,

Special Blanket Collection – Snowball Express

NRV Project Linus would like to send 35 blankets to support this event.  If you want to make a blanket specifically for this collection, please have it to Penny by September 16.  If you leave your blankets at Joann’s, be sure and label them for SnowballExpress.

PLEASE email Penny (PHS1010@aol.com) if you plan to make a blanket for this collection, so Penny can have a count of how many blankets to expect!

Snowball Express is an event of the Gary Sinise Foundation that provides a holiday vacation for the families of active military who have died since 9/11.  For 2019 and 2020, the event will be at Walt Disney World near Orlando in early-December.  You can get more information on their website, www.SnowballExpress.org.  (If you are familiar with TAPS, this is a similar but separate event.)

How does Project Linus fit in?  Each year Project Linus chapters nationwide work together to provide blankets for all the children attending this event.  This year we expect to serve about 1,200 children.  The Orlando/Central Florida Chapter is the liaison for this event and will partner with their neighboring county chapters in Brevard, Volusia, and Taft, Florida.  Together, they will receive and sort the blankets and ultimately be at the event to help each child pick out their perfect blanket!

Blanket Specifications:

  • Blankets must be new.  The blankets can be quilts, fleece, knitted or crochet.  There are quite a few knit and crochet already on hand.
  • All blankets must be 45 X 60 or larger.  The children who attend must be 5 years old, so NO baby blankets are needed.
  • Only Project Linus labels will be sewn on to the blankets.  Nothing else, no extra tags.
  • If they are fleece tied blankets, please make sure that they do not have selvages, are ONE layer only, and that they lie flat.
  • Do not wrap up the blankets in any way.  No individual plastic bags, no yarn, nothing.

 

Themes – DO’s!

  • Service-specific blankets are our greatest request (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard – in that order).
  • Next favorite are Star Wars, Superheroes, Minions, Disney, and camouflage.
  • These kids also like popular themes so we’ll need plenty of sports, cartoon characters, cheer, gymnastics, puppies, kittens, horses, lady bugs, any animal, etc.  Dora the Explorer is on the screen right now.  Unicorns and Mermaids are always popular.
  • We do want blankets from National, major league teams (NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA)!
  • The kids loved the blankets that were entirely crocheted.  They also loved the chunky chenille crocheted blankets.

 

Themes- DON’Ts!

  • DO NOT send any blankets that resemble the US flag.  Flags are draped over caskets at military funerals and may remind of that terrible day.
  • No baby themes.  The youngest attendees are 5 years old and most are older.
  • Very few of these kids select patriotic themed blankets (red, white & blue).
  • No College teams/logos.
  • No Christmas or specific holiday-themed blankets.  We want the kids to love and use their blankets year-round.

 

Thanks so much to each of you for ALL you do to support Project Linus!!!

Fondly,

Penny Sweet

 

Penny and Geeta sitting at a table at Project Linus Kansas City retreat

Look who is at the Project Linus retreat in Kansas City!

Enjoy yourselves and come back with lots of good ideas!

Thanks for representing the New River Valley.

NRV Project Linus receives $250 grant from Fairlawn Walmart

We are pleased to announce that New River Valley Project Linus has been awarded a $250 grant from the Community Grant Program of Walmart. Grant applications are submitted to the local Walmart and a selection committee from the store (Fairlawn) chooses the recipient. We are honored to be chosen for this grant. Thank you Fairlawn Walmart! Penny Sweet is pictured below receiving the grant from two Walmart employees.

Penny Sweet receives $250.00 grant from Walmart in Fairlawn

NRV Project Linus receives $250.00 grant from Fairlawn Walmart

February 18, 2019

Hello Friends,

Thanks to everyone who came out on Saturday and made our Blanket Day such a great success!  We had 76 local adults attend as well as 41 university students.  Our grand total for the day was 646 new blankets!  Just amazing!  This included a generous donation of 217 blankets from Celanese Corporation.  We appreciate them so much as we do every single person who donated blankets, food, and time and talents to support NRV Project Linus.  It is great to go home at the end of the day with labels on all the new blankets and have them ready to distribute to local children!

9/7/2019

Current Statistics for NRV PROJECT LINUS

Blankets received April – June 2019 – 633

Blankets distributed April – June  2019 – 543

Total Blankets Distributed since NRV Project Linus inception – 40,694

Would you like to learn a special skill??

NRV Project Linus provides weighted blankets to children with special needs. These blankets retail for between $100-$250 making it totally inaccessible for most children in need. We have an expert weighted blanket artisan who can’t wait to share her skills with someone who would like to learn to assist with this special project. Materials are provided but you would need to own a sewing machine and have basic sewing skills. Please contact Penny Sweet if you are interested.

 PROJECT LINUS DID YOU KNOW?

  • Karen Loucks started Project Linus on December 24,1995. The New River Valley-Radford Chapter begin in June, 2000.
  • Project Linus nationally has been alive for 6.942 days as of January 1.2017
  • Project Linus nationally has had non-profit status since May 12, 1997
  • The New River Valley-Radford Chapter of Project Linus donated 2,441 blankets in 2016. Since we started, we have delivered 33,467 blankets!
  • Project Linus nationally has officially collected over 6,063,751 blankets as of January 1, 2017. If 60% of them are fabric, that translated into over 10,914,751 yards of fabric. If 40% are afghans, that is over 19,404,003 skeins of yarn.
  • If each blanket is an average of 60: long, and we laid them end to end, they would stretch 30,318,755 feet or 5,742 miles. That is as tall as 1,44 Mt. Everests, or 17,071 One World Trade Centers or 24,255 Empire State Buildings or as long as 101,062 football fields.

Project Linus was named after the adorable security blanket-toting character from the Peanuts© comic strip. Creator Charles Schulz was aware of our efforts and was delighted to have Linus inspire blanket makers to help comfort children in need.

Project Linus began in December 1995 after Karen Loucks was inspired to make blankets for her local children’s cancer center. Since then, Project Linus has expanded to include children who are seriously ill or traumatized in many ways.

MISSION STATEMENT
Project Linus is a volunteer non-profit organization with a two-fold mission:

FIRST, it is our mission to provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need through the gifts of new, handmade blankets and afghans, lovingly created by volunteer “blanketeers.”

SECOND, it is our mission to provide rewarding and fun service opportunity for interested individuals and groups in local communities, for the benefit of children.
Anyone, any age, can help these children. It is within your power to make a difference.
Nearly 400 chapters of Project Linus exist nationally, with more than 4,000,000 blankets donated to children.