Charity Blitz 2008--a group effort to support a different charity each month

[Crochetville LLC]

It is time to begin preparations for the Charity Blitz of 2008! The 2007 Blitz thread got quite large and unwieldy, so we've developed some guidelines that will hopefully make the 2008 Blitz a more enjoyable experience for both coordinators and participants.

 

We will select a different charity for each month from January through November 2008, and we will collect donations of crocheted items for that particular charity. For the month of December, members are asked to make and donate items to an organization of their personal choice.

 

To make the Charity Blitz of 2008 successful, we will need several different types of help: people to coordinate the blitz (Coordinators), people to recommend charities (Sponsors), and people to make items to donate (Contributors). Here are the responsibilities for each group.

 

Coordinators

1. Crochetville LLC (Donna and Amy) will select two or three members to coordinate this project.
   
2. Coordinators will decide who will be responsible for collecting total for each month's charity.
   
3. Coordinators will notify AmyS who is responsible for a particular months totals by the 25th of the prior month, so that information can be added to the thread. (For example, February's coordinator information should be given to AmyS by January 25.)
   
4. Coordinator will PM AmyS with weekly total updates of the number crocheted items received for his/her month's charity. AmyS will then update the thread with the total number of items received.
   
5. Coordinators will answer any questions about the Blitz that members may have. If the coordinators don't know the answer to a question, they will forward the question to Donna and Amy for review.

Sponsors

1. Sponsors may recommend a particular charity for the 2008 Blitz by filling out the information requested in Post 2 in this thread, and sending it to AmyS via PM by December 24, 2007.
   
2. Sponsors must post an update to the thread whenever they receive donations for their sponsored charity.
   
3. Sponsors must also contact the contributor and the coordinator for their charity via PM or email to let them know a package was received.
   
4. Sponsors MUST have reached regular Villager status: been a registered member for longer than 60 days and made at least 40 posts.

Contributors

1. Contributors may contribute crocheted items to any charity listed in the Blitz. There is no requirement to contribute to a certain number of charities.
   
2. Contributors may contribute any number of items they wish. There is no requirement to contribute a certain number of items.
   
3. Only crocheted items will be counted towards monthly totals.
   
4. We will not maintain or publish a record of how many items an individual has contributed throughout the year-long blitz. However, members may choose to keep track of their totals themselves and include the data in their signatures if they wish.
   
5. Contributors should include their Crochetville username inside the package with all their donated items, so sponsor will know who sent the package.
   
6. Contributors must post to the thread the number of items they have sent for a particular charity when they ship a package.
   
7. Contributors must also send the sponsor of that charity and the monthly coordinator a PM or email notifying them a package has been sent (provide DC information if available) and telling how many items are included.
   
8. Any Registered member may send contributions, regardless of membership level.

[Crochetville LLC]

If you would like to recommend a charity to be considered for the Charity Blitz of 2008, please fill in the following information and send it via PM to AmyS by December 24, 2007.

 

ALL information must be provided. Incomplete applications will be discarded without notice.

 

Your Crochetville Username:

Name of Charity:

 

Charity's Website:

Brief description of what the charity does/who they help/etc.:

 

Complete description of crocheted items the charity needs:

(If specific patterns, yarns, or other materials must be used, please provide this information.)

 

Where items should be sent:

(If this is a personal address, this information will not be posted on the forum. Instead, the monthly coordinator for that charity will send the address info to contributors via PM upon request.)

[Crochetville LLC]

Please join me in a big round of "THANKS!" to cluless, FlowerPower06, and minwifeof4boys for volunteering to serve as co-coordinators for the Charity Blitz of 2008! I'm sure you will all keep them very busy tabulating monthly totals of crocheted items donated for the Blitz!

 

As we select the charities, we'll post information about each of them in this post. We'll also let you know which coordinator will be responsible for each particular charity. More to come later!

 

JANUARY 2008

 

Charity: Casting Off the Cold

What the charity does: They distribute hats/scarves/gloves/mittens/blankets to the homeless

What the charity needs: Hats, scarves, mittens, gloves, blankets (any pattern, yarn of your choice)

Mailing address: Send a PM to tracyleigh to request her mailing address

Shipping deadline: January 31, 2008

Sponsor: tracyleigh (remember to PM/email this person when you send something)

Coordinator: FlowerPower06 (remember to PM/email this person when you send something)

Number of Items Received: 219

 

FEBRUARY

 

Charity: One Spirit - Okini Program

What the charity does: Helping the Lakota Sioux in South Dakota; Pine Ridge and Cheyenne River Reservations

What the charity needs: Warm items, blankets, household

Mailing address: Will be provided later

Shipping deadline: February 29, 2008

Sponsor: FlowerPower06 (remember to PM/email this person when you send something)

Coordinator: minwifeof4boys(remember to PM/email this person when you send something)

Number of Items Received: 194

 

MARCH

 

Charity: Baptist Hospital of Jacksonville, FL

What the charity does: Best children's hospital in northeast Florida

What the charity needs: Baby hats and blankets (24"x24" for preemies and 36"x36" for full-term) in any pattern from any sport weight or DK yarn

Mailing address: Send 2kute a PM to request address

Shipping deadline: March 31, 2008

Sponsor: 2kute (remember to PM/email this person when you send something)

Coordinator: flowerpower06 (remember to PM/email this person when you send something)

Number of Items Received: 301

 

APRIL

 

Charity: Spot's Blanket

What the charity does: provides blankets (spots) for the animals at the Lexington, KY Humane Society. Special needs animals have the option of taking their blankets home with them to help ease the transition to a new home. This provides a warm spot instead of a cold floor for the animals while at the humane society and gives them some comfort of their own.

What the charity needs: Crochet mats and blankets in any shape and size to accommodate large dogs

Mailing address: Spot's Blanket, P. O. Box 23704, Lexington, KY 40523

Shipping deadline: April 30, 2008

Sponsor: ThatThunderbird (remember to PM/email this person when you send something)

Coordinator: To be announced (remember to PM/email this person when you send something)

Number of Items Received: 44

 

MAY

 

Charity: Kingston SDA Women's Ministry

What the charity does: The women's ministry does various things for the church, but the main pust is to make comfortghans for those who are shut-ins or who have a special need. For example, the program recently gave a comfortghan to a woman whose husband had died unexpectedly.

What the charity needs: 6" squares in acrylic worsted weight yarn. All colors are appreciated. Any pattern is fine as long the finished item is 6" square.

Mailing address: Please PM jadyn05 for the mailing address.

Shipping deadline: May 31, 2008

Sponsor: Jadyn05 (remember to PM/email this person when you send something)

Coordinator: To be announced (remember to PM/email this person when you send something)

 

 

JUNE

 

Charity: Firemen Bear Hugs (no charity URL; but here is fire department info)

What the charity does: This is a charity started by my family to provide Fireman bears to the Eutawville, SC Volunteer Fire Dept. (Station 7) to distribute to children during fire calls. These bears are also given to family members who have lost a firefighter in the line of duty. These firefighters cover a large rural area of OrangeburgCounty in SC and work solely as volunteers. There are currently 21 members of this department – none of which is paid for their efforts.

What the charity needs: The pattern used to make these bears can be found here. There are a few special requirements for these bears due to safety issues with small children.

1. The plastic face shields are to be left off all bears. NO SHIELDS PLEASE--These can cause severe injuries to small children.
   
2. Eyes and noses of bears are to be embroidered on. NO PLASTIC EYES OR NOSES PLEASE--These can cause choking hazards to small children.
   
3. All parts are to be securely sewn on to the bears (i..e, ears, tail, buckles, etc.).
   
4. Hats should have the number "7" embroidered on front of hat. The words "Eutawville, SC" on left side of hat, and the words "Fire Dept" on the right side are requested but not required.
   

Mailing address:

Eutawville Fire Dept.

409 Porcher Avenue

Eutawville, SC29048

Attn: Fireman Bear Coordinator –RuthAnn Hritz

 

The station phone # is 803-492-3944 Please ask for RuthAnn when inquiring about the bears.

Shipping deadline: June 30, 2008

Sponsor: wiz3283 (remember to PM/email this person when you send something)

Coordinator: To be announced (remember to PM/email this person when you send something)

 

JULY

 

Charity: Heavenly Angels in Need

What the charity does: Donate items to families of premature babies and babies who have died, and children coming out of traumatic situations

What the charity needs: Baby clothing in any size, blankets. Made out of baby yarn or other really soft yarn.

Mailing address: Please PM kookykatlady for the mailing address.

Shipping deadline: July 31, 2008

Sponsor: kookykatlady (remember to PM/email this person when you send something)

Coordinator: To be announced (remember to PM/email this person when you send something)

 

AUGUST

 

Charity: Nursing Home Project

What the charity does: Distribute lapghans to residents of a local nursing home. Many members are on Medicare and have no family visiting and very little to call their own.

What the charity needs: 8" squares in any color with a white border.

Mailing address: Please PM hseger for the mailing address.

Shipping deadline: August 31, 2008

Sponsor: hseger (remember to PM/email this person when you send something)

Coordinator: To be announced (remember to PM/email this person when you send something)

 

SEPTEMBER

 

Charity: Project Athena

What the charity does: Make preemie and baby blankets and hats. Some are given to preemie babies at the local hospital and others to the babies of teenage mothers who have chosen to give their babies up for adoption.

What the charity needs: Baby or preemie blankets and hats. Squares of any size are also wonderful, as we have a group of people who are happy to join them together. Please make sure to use soft yarns appropriate for babies.

Mailing address: Please PM CrisKad for the mailing address.

Shipping deadline: September 30, 2008

Sponsor: CrisKad (remember to PM/email this person when you send something)

Coordinator: To be announced (remember to PM/email this person when you send something)

 

OCTOBER

Charity: Fisher House

What the charity does: The Fisher House Foundation donates comfort homes" for use by military families so they can be close to a loved one who may be hospitalized for an unexpected illness, disease, or injury. These homes are located in many cities around the country.

What the charity needs: Blankets to be given to children when a parent is deployed or while staying at a Fisher House. You can send squares to Judianne for assembly, completed blankets to Judianne, or you can donate a completed blanked to a Fisher House in your area.

Mailing address: Please PM Judianne for the mailing address.

Shipping deadline: October 31, 2008

Sponsor: Judianne (remember to PM/email this person when you send something)

Coordinator: To be announced (remember to PM/email this person when you send something)

 

NOVEMBER and DECEMBER:

Holiday Blitz-o-rama!

 

Donate to any of the following charities. Details to be provided in the next day or two.

 

U.S. Veterans - Flowerpower06

Duke Children's Hospital - Minwifeof4boys

K.I.D.S - coolhockeymom.

 

Coordinator: To be announced (remember to PM/email this person when you send something)

 

 

TOTAL ITEMS RECEIVED

January: 219

February: 194

March: 301

April: 44

 

2008 to date: 758

[Terri/LadySorce]

Way to go you three

cluless

FlowerPower06

minwifeof4boys

[coolhockeymom]

congrads to the three of you

 

I guess I can not have a spot as I doubt the pedatric ward in my city or the fire/police department has a website to add to it

 

Good luck on the blitzing this year:crocheting

[FlowerPower06]

Thanks to everyone for your support and a special "Thanks" to Donna and Amy for considering me for co-coordinator. I look foward to working with my co-coordinators minwifeof4boys, cluless and all of you to make 2008 one of our most charitable yet. Charity work is my passion and I can't think of a better way to serve our most deserving.

 

Thanks again!

 

Donna

[cluless]

Hopefully we will get bunches and bunches of people to participate this year. It will be much easier for everyone since they don't have to sign up for the whole year at once. I cant wait to find out what the charities will be. I think it will be a really good year:cheer

[minwifeof4boys]

Now how cool is this??? I get to work with Donna & Amy.. PLUS clueless and FlowerPower06 and the biggie?.... I get to give my time to work with some of the most dearest crocheters with the biggest hearts in the whole world!!.. all of you who give of their hooks with out question

 

..We had such a great year last year... Here is to an even better 08!:cheer

[angelfire]

Thank you three ladies for volunteering to take care of this wonderful project. I have been donating since I started @ Crochetville and look forward to the efforts of the coming year.

[Amy]

congrads to the three of you

 

I guess I can not have a spot as I doubt the pedatric ward in my city or the fire/police department has a website to add to it

 

Good luck on the blitzing this year:crocheting

 

You can still suggest a charity that doesn't have a website. In that case, just give us some other sort of contact information for the charity. Like a point of contact, mailing address, and phone number.

[coolhockeymom]

then I guess I will have to get some information and at least try to get a space on the blitz

[HappyBunny]

I would love to be a contributor in 2008!

 

Kim

[wildthing1058]

I make cuddy's and toys for the animal shelters in my state and make warm hats and scarves to take to the homeless shelters too but I do it on my own is there some way to enter this as that I take them myself. I just can't seem to make enough. I have also started to make small afghans or throws for children in foster care so that when they are shuffled from home to home they have something that is theirs that they can take with them every where they go.

[tracyleigh]

Congratulations you three.

[tracyleigh]

I loved contributing this past year. Gave me a purpose to my crocheting.

[FlowerPower06]

Thanks everyone for the Congrats!

 

I would like to say that minwife4boys, cluless and myself have nominated ME as the January Co-Coordinator for our January Charity Blitz. Please get your charity program suggestions in to AmyS as soon as you can. We would like to start orgainzing our January program ASAP. When we have everything wrapped up we will share the who's, what's, whens, where's and why's with ya'all.

 

Thanks again for all you do, for your kindness and giving to the Charities we sponsor. You are the BEST!!

[tracyleigh]

I would like to start my charity crochet for the new year. I was just wondering when the list will be available?

[Amy]

We're accepting submissions of charities through December 24. The most fair thing to do would be to wait to select all charities until the application deadline has been reached. However, then since that's right in the middle of the holiday period, it would take some time for us to coordinate all the final selections.

 

This would probably delay things too much for the people who want to get started now on January projects, so we're going to have to do the next best thing. The best alternative is probably for us to go ahead and select two charities, one for January and one for February, from the submissions we've already received.

 

I can't promise when this information will be available, but we'll do our best to have it by the end of this weekend.

 

And to everyone who has not yet submitted your favorite charity, you've got plenty of time. But we'd love to get submissions as early as we possibly can so we have time to review each one and decide on our favorites without being rushed if we receive 100 submissions all on the very last day!

[tracyleigh]

That sounds fair. Thank you so much.

[baxjul]

I'll be a contributor, just tell me what to make and do!

[FlowerPower06]

I'll be a contributor, just tell me what to make and do!

 

Hi Julie! Thanks for participating in 2008. The Blitz is a year long thing and you contribute when you can and as often as you can. Every month we sponsor a different Charity with different needs. AmyS will be along soon with further details and soon we will be ready to pick up those hooks for charity! Thanks for being a part of this wonderful thing!

[segi1974]

I will be happy to help out.

[MomnWife]

I would love to contribute!!

[Amy]

I apologize for the delay everyone, but I've been dealing with computer issues and the busy holiday season! We have finally selected a January charity: Casting Off the Cold, sponsored by tracyleigh! You can read all the details in post #3 in this thread.

 

We hope to have a list of charities through at least June posted within the next week or so. It's not too late to submit a charity if you have one you'd like to recommend. Just go to post #2 to see the info I need, then send it to me via PM.

[livedinalaska]

We have finally selected a January charity: Casting Off the Cold, sponsored by tracyleigh! You can read all the details in post #3 in this thread.

 

Do you have more information on this charity? What state will the items be distributed in, or something like that... just curious. Thought it'd be fun to know.