What Project Linus Is, and Who We Serve on the Alabama Gulf Coast
There is something especially comforting about a blanket that was made by hand.
Someone chose the fabric or the yarn. Someone sat down at a sewing machine, picked up knitting needles, or worked one crochet stitch after another. And long before they knew who would receive it, they decided that this particular blanket was going to belong to a child who needed extra comfort.
That simple idea is at the heart of Project Linus.
What Project Linus does
Project Linus is a national nonprofit that provides new, handmade blankets to children who are seriously ill, experiencing trauma, or otherwise in need. The blankets are given freely through hospitals, shelters, and other organizations that care for children.
There is no application and no paperwork. A nurse, a caseworker, or a volunteer simply chooses a blanket and hands it to a child who needs one.
And when a child receives it, it is theirs to keep. Not borrowed, not returned at the end of a stay. Theirs — to take home, to carry to appointments, to sleep under for as long as it lasts.
The organization takes its name from Linus van Pelt, the little boy in the Peanuts comics who is never without his blanket. Charles Schulz understood something about children that the rest of us sometimes forget: when the world gets frightening, having one soft thing that belongs to you makes an enormous difference.
Our Chapter
Here on the Alabama Gulf Coast, our chapter serves children throughout Mobile and Baldwin counties.
My hope is to build more than a place where blankets are collected. I want to build a community of people who enjoy making things and who believe those skills can be put to beautiful use.
Some of us quilt. Some knit or crochet. Some tie fleece. Some have been sewing for decades, and some are still figuring out how to thread the machine.
There is room for all of us!
How you can be part of it
There are a few ways in, and none of them require you to commit to anything.
Make a blanket. Any size, any technique, as long as it’s new, clean, washable, and soft. If you’re not sure where to start, our guide to blanket sizes will help, and the no-sew fleece blanket takes one afternoon and no sewing machine at all.
Donate supplies. Fabric, batting, and yarn all go straight into the hands of people who will use them. If your sewing room contains more fabric than you will realistically use in this lifetime — and I suspect some of us know that feeling — we would be glad to have some of it.
Come to a Make a Blanket Day. Regular gatherings for Blanketeers on the Alabama Gulf Coast are starting soon, and I can’t wait. Bring a project, bring your questions, or just bring yourself.
Or simply follow along. Join our Facebook group and see what we’re making. Plenty of people start there and find their way to a blanket later!
