Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Newsletter - November 2014

Dear Blanketeers,

I hope you have all been enjoying this beautiful fall weather.  It has been wonderful!  As we know living in Utah means the weather can change in an instant, so I hope we have a few more weeks of this to enjoy before it gets too cold.  We have had a great month and been very busy!

Our next north valley blanket day will be Monday, November 3rd from 10:00am to 2:00pm at Our Saviours Lutheran Church 2500 East 3900 South, Holladay.  Please join us for a great day of blanket making!

Also, mark your calendar to join us for a Holiday celebration at out next North Valley blanket day on Monday, December 1st.  Kristin & Millie will provide lunch and treats!  We'd love to have you all join us to celebrate a successful 2014 and get into the spirit of the season!

Blanketeer Spotlight....

From Executive V. P. -  to Volunteer
 There is always more to be done for Project Linus than the actual blanket-making function.  In previous newsletters I have spotlighted Denna for delivering blankets all over town, Dayle for always making the food for blanket day workers, Barbara for her fund raising success, as well as others who have actually made the blankets.
     Today I wish to spotlight my husband, Dean Martensen.  After his retirement Dean volunteered at Ronald McDonald House for four years .  But now he volunteers with Project Linus.  No, he doesn’t make blankets!  He is the muscles in our organization and does the heavy work for us.  He is on the job every blanket day to set up a dozen tables and chairs before the blanketeers arrive.  In the afternoon when we are finished, he returns to fold them all up, stack and store them.


    Dean is always there to load the equipment and fleece into the car for me in the morning, the finished blankets back into the car in the afternoon, and to unload the car when I arrive with the bags at home.   If you never noticed, those plastic bags full of blankets are very heavy.  Dean carries the ones to be labeled upstairs and the ones to tag, package for delivery downstairs.  Then of course, when the deliveries are organized for the month, he carries the finished bags up from the basement again and helps Denna load them into her delivery van. 
       It’s not every woman who is lucky enough to have an executive vice president assist her with the heavy work.  Thanks Dean, not only for your physical help, but for your patience and tolerance as you endure a house full of blankets, and the constant presence of “fuzz” from cutting blanket fabric.      Millie

Rowland Hall High School - Half Day of Service

      We were so happy to be invited back to help with Rowland Hall's Half Day of Service.  High School students participate in a variety of service projects around Salt Lake and we had a great group of 36 students make blankets for our chapter of Project Linus.  

 Each student brought a new piece of fleece (or two) to make a beautiful no sew fleece/fringed blankets in under 2 hours.  Kristin spoke to the students about our Chapter, who we make blankets for and some of our donation sites.  We so appreciated the students, their adult volunteers and teacher/soccer coach Missy who were such a huge help!






The students immediately got to work and in the final count of donated material and completed blankets we have a grand total of 47!!  Their contribution is a huge boost for the project as we attempt to meet the needs of children who need the hug of a beautiful Linus blanket. Thank you Rowland Hall High School...you are all amazing!

























We are working to meet the requests from our drop offs for the next couple of months.  We are so grateful for all of you to help us keep children in Salt Lake County supplied with blankets.  Your time, talent and donations keep us moving forward.  Thank you for all that you do!

We hope to see you all soon!

Millie & Kristin
email: slcprojectlinus@gmail.com