Saturday, January 23, 2010

Stitching Up Some Hope




My parents were foster parents and my sister, Susan, was for a couple of years as well. Our Mom and Dad had become foster parents after most of us had grown-up and flew the coop, though our little brother, Joshua, was still at home. Our youngest brother, Tommy, came to live with Mom and Dad when he was three and they were able to adopt him when he was about eleven. When Craft Hope announced project #6, I had to jump in. Red Scarves for foster kids who are college bound and have turned 18, so are no longer in the system. Pretty much booted-out on their own, ready or not.
Here is a quote about this project taken directly from the Craft Hope site:

'The Orphan Foundation serves thousands of foster teens throughout the U.S. They provide college scholarships, connect them with mentors and internships, send them care packages, and testify for them before Congress. Each year 25,000 students ‘age out’ of the foster care system and the Orphan Foundation is committed to helping them become tomorrow’s successful citizens. They launched the Red Scarf program in 2005 to send red scarves to warm the hearts (and necks) of college bound youth. They began taking these donations to include in their Valentines Day care packages.'

It's not to late to join in and whip up a red scarf for project 6.


Craft Hope has also opened an etsy shop, Craft Hope For Haiti, which is benefiting Doctors Without Borders for Haiti relief. You can donate handmade items to the site and also, of course, buy beautiful handmade items from this shop, all proceeds going to the benefit. They have had and incredible response and so far raised a good amount of money. I decided to donate a set of custom made baby blocks to the site and they sold within just an hour or so of the listing. Yeah! I'll be making them this weekend and getting them out. If you would like to donate something to this charity, pop over to the Craft Hope site for the details.

8 comments:

flora said...

your scarf is lovely! And your family story is very touching. thanks for visiting my blog!

Adrienne said...

What a pretty scarf! It definitly takes someone pretty special to be foster parents. Thank goodness there are people like your family.

Those blocks are adorable ~ I see why they sold so fast!

Love Bears All Things said...

Good for you!
We were foster parents at one time.
I assume you're knitting the scarves.
Mama Bear

~ The Jolly Bee ~ said...

Your scarf looks great -- and what a special meaning this project has for you. The blocks are precious. I wish I had a little one to play with sweet blocks like these (on second thought -- no! I can't go through these teenage years again :) ).

Mary said...

The scarf is lovely and the baby blocks absolutely gorgeous. No wonder they sold so quickly. Congratulations for taking part in both projects.

I wish I had known about this and I would have donated something. I see they will be accepting donations again in two weeks. I will check back then.

Blessings,
Mary

Unknown said...

I like that scarf! What a great idea.
I'm going to check out my craft closet & come up with something to list for the Craft Hope etsy shop.

Affiknitty said...

Thanks for the link. I sent scarves to OFA, but I hadn't heard about the Craft Hope site. Your handmade blocks are so cute.
Shannon

Twisted Fencepost said...

My brother and sister-in-law are foster parents. They have definitely met some challenges. But adopted one of the children.
You have such a big heart!