What Is The Blanket Brigade?

Our Story - Written November 2013

I feel a strong responsibility to do my best to instill a servant heart in my kids. As Christmas approaches and everyone is talking about which gifts they'd like to receive (myself included!), I feel like this is a better time than any to do some acts of service.

Last year for Advent I created a calendar for my daughter, Mallory, who was 2.5 at the time. Each day she excitedly pulled a card out of an envelope that told her our activity for the day. Some were simple and fun such as, "Have a family picnic in front of the Christmas tree" but others were service based like, "Deliver food to Willow Creek's Food Pantry". Imagine how my heart burst out of my chest when that two year old walked right up to a "grown up", bag in hand, and said, "This food is for people who don't have any because we have a lot!"

As I was organizing our activities for the 2013 Advent season, I stumbled upon a blog post of a woman who donated fleece blankets to her local Children's Hospital. Having a daughter who spends MUCH of her play time caring for her "sickie" dollies, I couldn't help but think maybe she and I could pull this off too. She and I had a wonderful talk over pancakes about how there are a lot of kids who have to spend time in the hospital and how we could make blankets to help keep them warm and feeling safe while they are away from home. When I asked her how many she thinks we could gather if our friends and family members help us, she replied, "56".

Off we went to Jo-Ann Fabrics to pick out the fleece we needed to make our very first "Blanket Brigade" blanket. As the woman was cutting the fleece, Mallory, now 3.5 years old, told her the story of how we are going to donate blankets to the Children's Hospital to help sickie kids. Once again, this mama's heart was overflowing.

56 is our goal.

Will you help us?

We are hoping to donate as many blankets as possible to the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago on New Year's Eve.

Here's what we're asking:

Make a no-sew fleece blanket
-1.5 yards in size
-If you've never made one before, please refer to the "Blanket Tutorial" tab on our home page
-Please consider having your kids help with this project!

To prevent transmission of household allergens and other contaminants
-please launder the finished blanket and
-place in a clean trash bag tied at the top.

Contact Me at blanketbrigade2013@gmail.com to schedule a drop-off/pick up
or
Check out the "Where Do I Donate?" tab on our home page

You can also:
Pray for our project and check back in to watch our progress
Encourage YOUR family and friends to join in too!

Thank you!
God Bless you this Christmas Season and always!