As we welcome another Humboldt Project Linus blanket year, I want to recap our blanket successes for 2024.  In 2023, we delivered 475 blankets to local agencies working with young children.  In 2024, we delivered 526, that is 51 more blankets than in the previous year!  This was possible for a number of reasons. 1.) Our productive group of Blanketeers continue to make and donate “blanket hugs” during our monthly meetings at Buttons in Old Town.  Rain or shine, we are there on the last Saturday of the month sharing blankets, sharing sewing tips, selecting fabric from our fabric donations, and sharing life’s adventures, or misadventures, depending on one’s point…

This month we had requests for 53 blankets from infant to teen sizes which were nestled together in the plastic bags you can see in the photo below.  In our 6 years of operating as a Project Linus Chapter in Humboldt County, we have always been able to supply agencies with their specific blanket requests.  I attribute this to the stellar stitching abilities and dedication of our small, but mighty chapter of Blanketeers! This month these blankets were delivered to Women, Infants and Children/(WIC), Eureka City Schools, the DHHS Nurse Family Partnership and the California Tribal TANF Partnership.  The blanket bags are tagged so agencies know how many and what…

On May 19th, 2024 our Project Linus Chapter received a grant award from Soroptimist International of Humboldt Bay (SIHB) for $500.00 which was what we had requested in our 2024 grant application. SIHB has been an annual funding supporter since 2020.  The funds they donate are spent on blanket making supplies which helps our chapter to continue donating new, handmade blankets to agencies in our community working with children in need of a blanket hug. The award letter stated that SIHB had received “an unprecedented amount of grant requests this year” so we are quite pleased to be granted this award.  In addition to the award, we our grateful for…

Six years ago in May 2018, we held our first meeting of Project Linus Humboldt.  We met at the Bunny Hop Quilt Shop. The Times Standard published an article about our new chapter inviting interested people to attend.  I was so pleased to see about 12 people show up.  Their enthusiasm and blanket ideas foreshadowed the promise of a small, but mighty chapter! We met at the Bunny Hop Quilt Shop every month until March 2020 when the pandemic shut the world down.  Things were closed, but that did not stop our chapter from making and delivering blankets to children in our community needing a blanket hug.  While wearing masks…

Our blanket thanks to Coast Central Credit Union (CCCU) for their unwavering support of our Project Linus Humboldt Chapter. CCCU has been a supporter for the past six years. Their support is both financial and personal as they express their respect for our blanket making and all of the blanket deliveries we do for children in our community. With their funding we purchase batting in bulk with helps our blanket makers to get batting at no cost to them.  We also reimburse blanket makers for thread, yarn, and fabric that they purchase throughout the year. As the Chapter Coordinator, I am responsible for fundraising a minimum of $500. per calendar…

Our Project Linus Humboldt chapter is closing in on the end of another year of community blanket donations to children in need of a blanket hug.  In 2023, our chapter made 482 blankets and we delivered 475 blankets to local agencies working with families and their children. We met every month this year at Buttons in Old Town and every month I drove off with another stellar blanket haul! The photo below is an example of one of those hauls! 54 blankets came in this month with 41 of those blankets going to children living in local family shelters. Most of the blankets made are quilts and agency staff continue…

I am not quite sure where the summer went as we are now well into fall.  Summer is our 3rd reporting quarter for Project Linus Headquarters.  In that quarter our Blanketeers made 110 blankets and we delivered 114 blankets to local agencies working with young children. 25 blankets went to children under the age of 8 years living in Betty Chinn’s Family Shelters.  25 blankets went to very young children, some with special needs, who were adjusting to Pre-Kindergarten.  Their teachers realized that 4 year olds need to nap and they were helped to do so with a comforting blanket.  Blankets also went to teens living in the Youth Service…

This May marks our 5th year in Humboldt County delivering blankets to children from birth to age eighteen who need a blanket hug. To mark this occasion, Buttons in Old Town Eureka offered us space to hang our blankets for the Arts Alive event on May 6th.  In addition to hanging our homemade blankets, we hung framed pieces honoring our community donors, our Blanketeers, along with the listing of the agencies who have received our blankets in these past five years. You can see this show in the photos below. As the Chapter Coordinator, I can say that our blankets not only provide comfort to children, but they are most…

We did it!  The 2,000th blanket was delivered recently to one of Betty Chinn’s Family Shelters in Eureka. This blanket was part of a delivery of 23 blankets, 19 of which were for boys ages 3-15 years.  Betty gives a blanket to each child when they leave her shelter and move to permanent housing. You can see the blanket below along with Betty and myself. Our Project Linus Humboldt Chapter will be five years old next month.  2,000 blankets delivered in five years to children living in our community is not bad when you consider a few of those years were during a pandemic and the last year has been…

Coast Central Credit Union (CCCU) has been by our side since our chapter began in 2018.  They have funded each CCCU Sponsorship application that I have written. Once again, I wrote an application requesting $500.00 for 2023.  Good thing I was sitting down when their staff e-mailed me asking if our Project Linus Humboldt Chapter could use $1,000.00!  They continue to be impressed with the blankets we donate to children being served by local agencies in our community and their offer certainly reflects that. You can see me receiving the $1,000. check from CCCU Marketing staff recently.  The blanket shown was made by one of our Blanketeers, Deborah Watson.   CCCU…