Shop with a Cop 2012

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  Blanketeers, warming hearts and bodies

  South Valley Journal 11/29/2012
  
  By Nathaniel Bingaman
  
  
  
  
  
  Volunteers recently made blankets for Shop with a Cop participants.

“Blanketeers” will take the place of elves for some children this Christmas season.
The South Jordan Police Department has requested 110 blankets to give to children as part of its participation in the annual Shop with a Cop event.
A national nonprofit organization called Project Linus has been asked to make blankets for Shop with a Cop. The mission of the group is to provide homemade blankets for children in need.
Shop with a Cop will take place on Dec. 8. The event partners up a child ages 4 to 8 with a police officer. The cop then escorts the child around a department store to purchase gifts for the participant’s family.  This year, each of the children will also receive their own blanket.
Kristan Vance, coordinator of the Salt Lake County Chapter of Project Linus, said she put her best people, or “Blanketeers” as the blanket makers are called, on the South Jordan project.
“It’s rewarding to get together with others who have a common purpose,” she said.
Volunteers from all over the valley of different ages, genders and beliefs came together to complete this project before Thanksgiving. Groups from the Friday Women’s Fellowship, Country Park Second Ward, the Jordan Parkway Ward, Mountain Vista United Methodist Church, Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church and many individual South Jordan residents came together to make 110 blankets.
On average, each blanket made by the group cost $10. This year, the Shop with a Cop program donated the money needed for the blankets.  Along with each blanket, the child receives a card with a poem and the name of the person who made their blanket.  Vance said the card stock material used to make those cards was donated anonymously.
Vance is in her third year as coordinator. She loves getting feedback from parents and children and enjoys being able to make a difference to those who receive the blankets.
One of the volunteers explained why she gave of her time and talents to this project.
“You never know where the blanket will go, or the arms it will end up in,” Kathy Morrow, a volunteer who enjoys “Blanketeering” said.

Kristin's corrections....Kristin's one year anniversary as coordinator for our chapter will be February 2013 & I've been involved with Project Linus atleast 3 years (I can't remember when Edrie introduced me to Kathy)  Kathy, our amazing previous coordinator, started the chapter in January 2007, so we will soon celebrate our 6th anniversary & are getting close to 10,000 blankets delivered.  The individual residents who helped with blankets live all over Salt Lake County.