Here's that first hat:
And here's a picture of my 2012 knitted donation:
Final count was 3 scarves, 2 cowls, 2 pair of fingerless mitts, and 33 hats. 40 items all together. Woot! Ten items went to Trinity Place, a ten bed shelter in New York City for homeless LGBTQ youth. The rest went to Ruth Ellis Center, an organization in Detroit that has both a drop-in center and residential programs for LGBTQ youth. Ruth Ellis estimates that there are 800 homeless teens in Detroit on any given day. The situation in NYC is even worse. According to this article, as of 2008 there were approximately 3,800 homeless youth in NYC, but the city had only 250 shelter beds reserved for teens. Some knitting doesn't mean much in the face of those kinds of numbers, but hopefully these things will mean something to the 40 people who get them.
I'm already plotting my donation for next year. I give cash when I can, which isn't as often as I'd like. But in the meantime I have a cabinet full of yarn and all the time in the world. For 2013 I hope to be able to donate 100 hats.
We were JUST talking about this last night (seriously, you are involved in WAY more of our conversations than you could ever guess). My beloved friend Karen had brought Dan some yarn with a few patterns, thinking that she'd need hats this winter. Well, you know that she passed away recently. Neither of us had the heart to go near that bag, he had finished one hat and started another....
ReplyDeleteLast night we both mentioned something about donating the lot to that group you found for us, the local LGBTQ teen gathering spot just down the road (they use the community center in the park I ride through nearly every day). We're on it. Thank you, for being you.
Oh, Julie. I'm glad you've found a good home for the hats/yarn. It hurts when you've got an unfinished project hanging around for a friend who's passed. (I have a shawl that I knit for my friend Laura, who died a year and a half ago.) Hopefully it helps knowing that these things are going on to another life, where they'll be used and appreciated. Love to you and Dad.
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