Guess Who’s Back?

Hello Friends and Family!  

Remember this little cutie?

A little girl with a BIG mission: to be a “nurse for babies” and to “love people”.

Mallory is now a Jr. High student with career aspirations to be  Pediatric Nurse Practitioner and a continued desire to share her servant heart with as many people (especially little people) as she can.

Her little brother was a recipient of one of our blankets six years ago this month when he underwent a complete cranial vault reconstruction. He’s too young to remember what an incredible blessing this mission was for hundreds of people so we’re excited for him to be a part of the tying this time around!

More details will continue to be shared but for today, we’d like you to think about joining us as we collect blankets again this fall! We’re joining forces with our church where our mission is that we’ve been SENT TO SERVE.  We have been challenged to be one of 500 witnesses of God’s love in our world today, just as Jesus appeared to hundreds after He rose.

Put October 8th on your calendar if you’d like to join us for a blanket tying event or reference the tutorial on our blog if you’d like to make a blanket or two at home.  This is a “love people” event for people of ALL AGES!

3rd Annual(ish) Tied With Love Event!

This past Sunday the Blanket Brigade teamed up with our church, St. Paul Lutheran in Mt. Prospect, and Thrivent Financial to put on our third "Tied With Love" event.

And it was our most successful one yet!

33 blankets tied, another 25 dropped off, and 56 hours of service clocked for our church's "Super Weekend of Service"!  Way to go!

Here We Go Again!

Thanks for checking out our mission!

Working on our very first blanket.

In 2013, when Mallory was just three years old, we decided to collect our first round of blankets. You can read all about how we got started here.  What began as a small advent service project turned into a much bigger blessing than we ever could have imagined!  The following year (2014) we did it again more than doubling our donation from the year prior and our blankets arrived from 23 different states!  It was AMAZING.

Tagging and Bagging blankets in 2014

In 2015 we became recipients of a blanket when my youngest son, Grant (then 5 months old) was a patient at Luries for cranial reconstructive surgery to correct a condition called craniosynostosis.  Post surgery we scaled down a bit but still donated blankets for the third year in a row just before Christmas.

Our Sweet Baby Grant recovering on the 19th floor of Ann & Robert H Lurie's Childrens Hospital.

Prior to our first hand experience, we had supported Luries based on the wonderful things we had heard from other people.  After spending five days in "The Disneyworld of Children's Hospitals" we learned exactly why patients, parents, and medical professionals speak so highly of it.  The care we received was out of this world and I knew that the Blanket Brigade would continue to be a part of our family's mission for years to come.

We skipped doing it at the end of 2016 keeping in mind that the holidays are a busy time for many. Our hope is that life has slowed down a bit and your hearts will be open to the idea of joining us in the early months of 2017 as we support the patients of Lurie Children's hospital, gifting a cozy and comfortable blanket to as many of them as possible! Our donation date(s) have not yet been set, but we likely will be donating in February and then again in March when we visit for Grant's yearly checkup with his neurosurgeon.

If you've never made a fleece tie blanket before, we have a tutorial for you here.  You'll need two pieces of fleece, 1.5 yards each piece.

It's important to remember that these blankets are gifts. Please inspect your blanket before donating to make sure it's properly knotted, washed, & THOROUGHLY dried.

One of my most favorite parts of our brigade is receiving and blogging photos of all of our happy blanket makers and their beautiful blankets.  I will be keeping track of our progress again this year under the page marked Our Progress - 2017.

First three blankets of Blanket Brigade 2017!

More information is soon to follow!  Thanks again for your support!

Mariah's Super Sweet 16

I received an email this week from a friend's coworker who had a very unique and special plan. Her daughter Mariah's  Sweet 16 Party was today and they decided it would be nice to have Mariah and her friends do something nice for others. Having participated in the Blanket Brigade last year, they decided to have the girls make blankets!

Mallory & I got to FaceTime with the party girls earlier this afternoon and we were happy to see they were having such a good time. 

Way to go, Girls!  

Happy Sweet 16, Mariah!

Friday "Wrap" Up

I'm hearing so many great stories about how you are coming together to Branch Out the Blanket Brigade!  I'm keeping a running list so if you've got something in the works, I'd love it if you could contact me and let me know so I can have an idea of where we're at.

Earlier this fall, my baby had to have cranial reconstruction surgery at Luries.  Heading into it I was thinking, "There's NO way I'm going to be able to pull off the Blaket Brigade this fall".  But from the first time I set foot in that place until the moment we left I repeatedly asked myself the question, "How can we NOT do this after experiencing, first hand, how AMAZING this hospital is!" I was so blown away I blogged about it early one morning during our stay.  You can read it here.

I can't wait to see what other amazing places are loved by the blanket brigade this year!

If you are local, we are JUST about set with a 2nd Annual, Thrivent Sponsered, Tied With Love event at St. Paul.  Details coming soon!

Thrivent members, did you know you have access to an Action Team grant?  Consider applying and using your money for fleece!  Scouts, Clubs, Teams, Youth Groups, Classrooms, Faculty, Staff.... there are so many opportunities to work together to bless the lives of the children in your own community.

Mallory's Mission

Hello Blanket Brigade Friends!

Welcome to the 3rd Annual Blanket Brigade.  Mallory and I are both very excited to see what this year's Brigade will hold!

While we will still be collecting for Lurie Children's Hospital, we are also adding something different this year.

WE ARE BRANCHING OUT!

As we received blanket box after blanket box from all over the country last year, I couldn't help but think, "Wouldn't it be great if our Blanket Brigade started spreading across the nation?" (And save many of you on shipping costs!)

So with that in mind, Mallory and I started talking about what her goals would be for this year.

"Mallory, if we asked people from all over the country to bring blankets to a hospital near them, how many blankets should we challenge them to collect?"

"Half a dozen, Mom.  That's six".  (Thanks, Mal)

"OK, so how many people are you hoping will collect half a dozen blankets for a hospital near them?"

"One Hundred".

"Really, Mal?  100?  That's kind of a lot".

"But Mom, we collected FIVE HUNDRED FIFTY blankets for one place!  It's just 6.... they can do it".

Well touche, Child.  Who am I to tell her it's lofty?  After all, I tried to tell her there was no way we would double our first year's delivery of 216, but she said it could be done.  And she was right!

So that's her mission -
100 people (We're calling them "Branch Buddies") collect 6 blankets for a children's hospital (or floor of a hospital) near them.
(YES, you can most certainly do more than 6.  We don't set limits!) 

That, ON TOP of collecting for Ann & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago!

Will you help?

Our deadline for blankets is Monday, November 30th which is the Monday after Thanksgiving.

A tutorial for how to make and handle blankets is on a tab on our blog.

PLEASE make sure your blanket has been cut and tied correctly before washing it and putting it in a clean, unused garbage bag.  

And finally, as always, we want to keep track of how many blankets we have and where they are from.

If you're donating locally, please send me a picture of you, your kids, your class, etc with the blanket.

If you're a "Blanket Brigade Branch Buddy" you don't have to worry about getting a picture of every single blanket.  We'd just like some sort of picture from you letting us know how many blankets you collected and where you brought them.  Be creative!

THANKS for your continued generosity and love!

EDITED TO ADD: Most hospitals have a person in charge of donations.  This individual's email address should be located on the hospitals webpage.  Most hospitals require the same handling instructions as Lurie's.

That's A Wrap!

TADA!!

 

Today was our second delivery for Blanket Brigade 2014 and WOW, did we deliver!  Three vehicles filled with bagged blankets and eager helpers delivered the rest of the 

FIVE HUNDRED FIFTY BLANKETS

we have received from 23 states across the country since October.  

550!!  Can you believe it?!  We kinda can't!

There are many things I absolutely love about this project, but one of the things I love most is the people I connect with, meet, and reconnect with thanks to the love and compassion that is extended from some amazing people.  Our delivery team today consisted of some special grade school friends!  The above picture shows "The Deliverers" - all alum (and a future alum) of St. Paul in Mt. Prospect.  (Classes of '91, '92, '93, and 2024)  Thank you, Alana & Shannon, for spending your afternoon with us!  

 

There was one particular day about a month ago where I had messages in my inbox from two girls I met on mission trips (one in Colorado and one in New York), two people I went to High School with, and a childhood friend that moved away in 3rd grade ALL wanting to let me know they had a blanket to contribute to the Brigade.  What a perfect example of God's Family working together!!  I've been constantly reminded that I have crossed paths with some unbelievably awesome people.

Many of you have asked me how the blankets are distributed.  Today I learned a bit more about how the process works.  They first take some of the blankets straight from the loading dock right up to the floors to deliver to inpatients who don't already have one.  They also hand out blankets in their Family Life Center  and at special events (see pictures below!)  The remainder of the blankets are split up and sent to outpatient facilities in Lincoln Park and Winfield where children are scheduled for tests, procedures, and surgeries.  I was told the blankets are especially cherished in those times as they become a comfort on a "scary" day.  

Once again, I'm so thankful to all the people who have played a part in this special project. Your compassion, love, and willingness to help has amazed me every day since we started our Blanket Brigade.

We are looking forward to slowing down a little bit and enjoying all things surrounding this Christmas Season as we focus on Jesus' love as He is the One who loved us first and best!  

 

I've been hearing some stories of how our project has inspired others.  If you have a story or project to share, please contact me as we would LOVE to share it on our blog!

 

From the bottom of our hearts, Mallory and I say, "THANK YOU" for 

making Blanket Brigade 2014 such a HUGE success!