Bristol County Daily News

Every month I look forward to meeting new people that attend our gathering. We sit, we chat, we knit or crochet and we weave beautiful afghans for the homeless. This month is no different well maybe that we are working toward our 40th afghan. We have already delivered 29 afghans and during the past 2 months I have been given 8 afghans. I am about to finish my first and that well leaves us at the 40 mark!!!! We as a group have had a goal to deliver 50 afghans in a year I believe we will accomplish this goal. Maybe I should change it to 52 as a goal. That would be one afghan a week. Next year we will have to move that number up a little so that maybe we have 1 1/2 per week on average. I guess what I am saying it I am so happy to be part of this and all of you. For those who are thinking of coming this month and have not been before we welcome all with open arms we teach and have supplies and are happy to have you so please join in.

Tuesday 17 July 2007 At 6:30pm
Allen's Neck Friends Meetinghouse
Horseneck Road
Dartmouth, MA 02748

Go to www.allensneck.org for directions

Labels: afghans

When you set your mind to it you start to realize that there are so many ways to help. See I volunteered to teach Sunday school this week and well it just so happens its on community service. I wanted to get the children's minds working. I wanted them to leave thinking I can do this. I want to do this. So my children and I went out back and cut down a bunch ( a lot) of grapevine so that the children could make wreaths, and I got a flyer from Walgreen's, and letters to marketing companies asking to removed from the general mailing lists they sell and last but not least ink cartridges. Do you wonder what these things have to do with community service?
The grapevine wreaths can be sold at the church fair and the money given to the homeless shelter, the Walgreen's flyer has toothpaste and sanitary napkins with a rebate it makes them free, by cancelling junk make we will save trees, cut down on energy use, and the ink cartridges can be turned into Staples, office max and such that will give you $3.00 in store credit that can be given to a homeless shelter to use so that other money can be used to care for the homeless and not paper or ink or what every. So the answer is they are all easy, very easy ways that we can start making changes right here in our own backyard. So I invite all of you to join me in the fight to change our world and make it better. It will cost you nothing and take very little time and you will feel great afterwards. Come on and jump in.

Labels: afghans

So many people have reached out to me. They want to help but today I am feeling that afghans are not enough. The more I talk to people about homelessness the more upsetting it becomes. So many families are out there with their children without a place to live go to http://www.endhomelessness.org/ and you can get some numbers. I cant help but think about how much money we are spending every day to kill people in Iraq when that same money could not only house but educate and employee every homeless person in Massachusetts so that they would become independent productive people in our community. Why do spend so much time producing violence when we could be producing quality life. There is a website that tells you by town how much money your town is putting towards the war. Check it out http://costofwar.com/ As I type this the number is changing but it was about $12million. That's crazy can you imagine what $12million could do. Towns are cutting sports, busing to schools, libraries are closing, summer programs are gone yet be are spending billions to kill others. Maybe its me but I just don't get it!!!!

Labels: afghans, homeless shelter

We had a great gathering the other night. We are almost finished with yet another afghan. But this one seems to feel important to me... well OK I will admit it its been six months and as all of you know I am just learning how to crochet and well when I finish this one it will be my personal first. Many have helped me learn along the way and as I learn I am teaching others the little I know. So last week I got to show someone how to put the squares together. She is taking that information home to put the squares she has made in to a blanket. Then next time we meet I will show her what I learned which was the edging around the afghan. I hope that I will be able this month to work more on my afghan. For all of you that are helping I want you to know how much I appreciate all the hard work.

Labels: afghans

I have been doing so much spreading the word that I haven't done much knitting this month. I am looking forward to our meeting next week. To enjoyable company and conversation with old and new friends. I am hoping to complete two more afghans that are almost there. For anyone needing directions go to www.allensneck.org and click on the contact us link. I have also gotten a few calls regarding the size of the squares we are making. We are making 7" x 7" squares. I realize that Warm up America makes a 7" x 9" square but we have deviated. The reason being is that some of us are making "granny squares" which of coarse are square. To keep it simple I have asked everyone to make 7" x 7" squares so we will all be making the same size. Trust me on this thou even as we try they do not always come out 7" x 7". We will make all the squares into afghans. We will make it work. Hope to see all of you Tuesday.

Labels: afghans

It seems that spreading the word is starting to pay off. I have had two articles printed in the last month and from it I have received a few phone calls and some people who have dropped off yarn and squares. I am hoping that when the next article hits print that we will have a good push again. Summer is coming and I realize that many people go on vacation so that the group will have fewer some months then others. But what I would like to express is that we are still moving forward we are making more and more afghans and I am really proud of our progress. So keep those squares and afghans coming.

Labels: afghans

When all else fails toss a stone in the pond and see what happens. I am constantly frustrated by people who just stop trying because it takes too much effort. I don't think anything is ever founded on the easy way. Well I do tell my children that there is an easy way and a hard way to do things. But in this case we are talking about hard work. The grass will not mow itself, the dishes don't do themselves. That type of thing. I have been spreading the word about the homeless. Not just making afghans but talking to people about how we need to find a solution to this problem. There is this group in Philadelphia that says they have a plan to end homelessness in 10 years. I emailed them and asked them for their plan. Maybe it will work here. When the paper came to do the follow-up story I talked about homelessness. Not just afghans but hey did you know there are homeless people who go to school with our children but they are to embarrassed to tell anyone so they are ashamed, they hide it. Could you imagine being 9 years old and having to carry that burden. Yet even as adults we are to ashamed to tell people we would rather live in our cars then ask for help. If my husband and I both lost our jobs and couldn't pay our bills I surely hope that enough people would care to help us our and that we would trust them enough to accept it. Why is it so shameful to ask for help. When we pay someone to fix something is that not asking for help? Just because we give them cash its OK? Sometimes we have no control over loosing our job, not being able to find a new one that will pay all our bills. One serious illness can wipe out a life savings in a few months. It might take effort it might take time it might take a lot of things but quiting is not one of them. Please don't quit on the people who need up the most, the children, the injured, the helpless, the ones who have no voice in our society, let us speak up for them. We can find a way to end homelessness lets start today.

Labels: afghans

I was so excited the paper was coming to do a follow-up story on the afghans. I was looking forward to jump starting the community again. When people see it in the paper they want to get involved. This time it was going to be about everyone who has been working on the afghans not just my family. So I spent the morning trying to clean the house while my three youngest children mess it up behind me. I decide maybe if we all went outside and stopped messing up the house it would work better. There we are playing in the sandbox all picturesque when my 5 year old decides to choke my 3 year old and I have to send her for a time out just as the reporter shows up. Well I think here we go...then my three year old doesn't want to come inside while mom talks to the reporter and begins to have a fit. I am trying to calm him down while holding my infant daughter in my arms he gets a shovel full of sand and whips it onto her car and us and then I have to take the shovel away because of the sand throwing and then melt down occurs and he throws himself on the ground and begins to scream. I only have one hand at this time still carrying my daughter I pick him up by one hand and I am trying to get him up the stairs without him getting injured. Mean while the reporter is standing there thinking I don't know what and I am thinking AAAAAAAHHHHHHH! Well we finally make it in the house and sit down in the living room to talk. I begin to tell her about all of you. The students at the high school, the teachers, the women at the nursing home, Tae kwon do mothers and everyone else. That's when my son decides he has to go to the bathroom and needs my help so I have to leave to get him squared away I put my daughter down and leave for a moment when I come back she has crawled over and is trying to eat the poor women's shoe. She is gentle trying to get her to stop without really picking her up. So I pick my daughter up only to have my son yell he's ready for a wipe...AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH! Really I am an intelligent person but I will tell you it doesn't look like it all the time. We did end up having a wonderful conversation and I believe the story will be well told. Look for it in the Standard-times. You might see some of your squares as I sent them pictures of completed afghans. Thanks to all of you this project is continuing to be a great success.

Labels: afghans

This will bring new readers up-to-date and regular readers some new insight. Read on....

About five months ago I started writing people asking them to help. It all started when I was trying to find one of those illusive parking spaces near the library and parked in front of the bus station. I was in a hurry and began to get my four small children out of the car when I looked up as saw a group hovering about and well I was late and didn’t have time to load the children back in the car and find a new parking space. So I huddle my children close and told them to walk fast. The way any mother hen would when she thinks her chicks are in danger. As I hurried my children pasts the people huddled around the vents at the bus station my 7-year-old son asked me why all those people were there and why they didn’t have coat. I told him they were homeless and tried to move him along a little faster. He said “Why don’t they go inside the bus station it looks a lot warmer in there.” I new this was one of those moments I could turn and run or tell the truth. I answered “Because people don’t like homeless people hanging around it makes them uncomfortable.” Then he asked that question “ Why don’t they have a home? Where do they sleep? I stopped and realized this was one of those moments when I could teach my children a valuable lesson. I answered, “There could be a lot of reasons why they are homeless. Lets say that Dad lost his job or got hurt and couldn’t work. Well how would we pay for our house, food, clothes, shoes or a winter coat to keep us warm? Some times that happens and as hard as we try we lose all of our things. And people are always afraid to ask for help. They think people won’t like them. So they end up in shelters and then they hide because people don’t like homeless people to hang around. They think they are dirty, bad people. He said we should do something. I agreed.

When we got home I started making calls to see if we could volunteer. But the more I called the more I realized that people don’t want a woman and her four small children helping. I got a lot of. No Thank You’s I thought, well now I know why nothing ever gets done. Even volunteering had a lot of red tape. It was hard to make a long-term commitment. I didn’t want to volunteer and then not be able to follow thru if something came up. What to do now? I wanted to teach my children they could make a difference. That they could do something, but what could I do? I didn’t know.

Then I was surfing the web when I came across Warm Up America. Warm Up America makes afghans for the homeless with the help of everyday people. You can make just one square and send it to them. They will put it with others and it will become an afghan. That afghan will be given to a homeless person. I thought, “ I don’t know how to knit or crochet but they had directions and I can read so why not give it a shot.” I went out and bought a skein of yarn and knitting needles…cost was about $5.00. I read the directions and yes it took me a while to figure it out. I stitched and pulled it out and tried again, and again and again then I started to get the hang of it. I made a square. Trust me it wasn’t a pretty one. It had lots of mistakes. I figure if I was cold I don’t think I would be counting stitches I would be counting my blessings for a warm blanket. So I tried again and then I began to show my children just how easy it was. As I showed them I thought, if I could get each of my friends and family to make one square, well maybe I could also get the people at church to make a square, the children in my sons class, hey this is an idea. I could get enough people to make an entire afghan. My children could see just how easy it could be to make a difference. So how do I get all these people involved and where do I get the yarn and knitting needles and crochet hooks…Well I went back to the web and looked up yarn suppliers and wrote to as many as I could find about donating yarn. Then I called the paper and asked if they wanted to help me spread the word about making afghans. On Christmas Eve Day the Standard Times ran the story.

Ask and it will be yours….
That day, Christmas Eve, neighbors who I have never spoken with, saw my picture and story in the paper, came to my house with donations, money to buy knitting needles, yarn they had and never used, and then Caron Manufacturing donated boxes and boxes of yarn. I couldn’t believe it. My phone started ringing people who have knitted or crochet for years wanted to send me squares. Little old ladies who have been forgotten in their apartments for years called me to talk, to ask me if they could help. They had something to give again. Their stories touched my heart and their warmth filled me.

The Gift I received…
Once every six-week a women who is blind meets me as she goes for her cancer treatments. Her daughter drives her and we meet in the parking lot and talk about our progress and I describe how beautiful the afghans are and tell her how her pieces have been woven in to the blankets. She tells me that her prognosis is not good and smiles as she hands me 30 squares she has made. My heart is full.

I go to a triple-decker family house in New Bedford where an elderly women lives on the third floor. We make our way up the flights of stairs and she smiles to see my children. She brings out a basket of toys for them to play with and her tiny apartment is filled with the laughter and noise of children. We talk about what’s going on in the City. As we enter her living room she has three cardboard tables set up. The first is filled with small squares of a single color. The second with medium squares with two colors and the third is piled high with finished three-color squares. Then on the couch is a pile of completed afghans. At one visit she had made three afghans in a months time. I tell her how much her hard work and commitment is appreciated. How much it means to me that we are doing good. How beautiful her work is. She thanks me and hugs me, telling me I was sent by God and have changed her life. I hug her again. My daughter asks me why is she crying. I say because she feels good. The deep down good that makes you cry.

I thought I was making afghans for the homeless but then I realized so much more was being made. Kindness, goodwill, love and friendship are stitched in with each piece that is made. The boxes come full of squares with notes from the makers with promise of more to come. People ask me to send pictures of the afghans and I send updates to them as we go.
I tell people next time you see a homeless person wrapped in an afghan and you are rushing by trying not to make eye contact, stop, take a moment, smile warmly and remember I don’t think they want to be out in the cold either. If you have one half hour in you life you can make a difference. Together we are making a difference, join us.

Labels: afghans

I have to say I should ring the bell more often. I got a great response from the papers. Two will be running stories maybe three. It makes me wonder if there isn't enough good news to print. People like good news. Well everyone we are good news and we will be in print soon. I have emailed a few people to ask if they would like to participate. Tell the papers what its meant to them so far. I am hoping that by others telling their stories that it will inspire others to join in. If you are still on the fence about joining us or doing something now is the time, jump in. Start small once you get the ball rolling see how far it takes you. I have found this has opened up more doors then I ever thought possible. I have met so many people and their ideas have spurred more ideas it is amazing.

Labels: afghans

Its funny how things happen, the Blanket Bunch met the other night and there was another group meeting at the same location, well when the meetings got out people started asking about the afghans and making comments about how beautiful they are, we told them about donating them to the homeless. The next morning I received an email from a man that saw the afghans and was very impressed. He wrote to a friend at the local newspaper who was looking to do a story on peace activism...I never thought of us as peace activists. I thought wow is this how a movement is started? Then I thought Yes this is how a movement is started. So I wrote to a few editors in hopes that the word gets spread. Then I wrote to a few local papers that carry calendars about happening and I thought I should put notices in about our monthly meeting. I have been thinking that we need more people to get involved and so I need to step it up a little bite to make that happen. See things don't happen by themselves. We need to ring our own bells. Stand up to get noticed. You need to make things happen for yourself its not just fate its action that will get things done. Sometimes fate comes knocking but you need to answer the door and let it in to take advantage of it. So I'm opening the door wide and I'm standing up and I'm saying LETS MAKE A DIFFERENCE AND LETS INVITE EVERYBODY TO JOIN IN. If you want to start your own group go to www.warmupamerica.org

Labels: afghans

People do make a difference and when they come together they make things happen they didn't know they could. Last night the "Blanket Bunch" had there monthly meeting and as people walked in carrying semi completed afghans by the end of the meeting they had six completed afghans. They worked finishing trim and tassels and teaching others new stitches. Everyone felt the electricity of the wonderful deeds they have completed. To date that brings the "Blanket Bunch" total to 24 afghans. The original goal was 24 in the first year but with the hard work of many the group has completed 24 afghans in 4 1/2 months. They are confident that they will be able to complete 50 by the end of the year. If you would like to get involved or start your own group check out www.warmupamerica.org or www.allensneck.org Keep up the good work together we are making our world a better place.

Labels: afghans

It seems I need to get up and get people moving again. Last month the afghan group floundered. I am usually a very enthusiastic person and get people to rally but last month was very busy and I just got nothing done. The hurried I go the more behind I get. So this month I really need to get back to basics and spread the word. So I am starting here. I started making afghans for the homeless in January and to date have as a group made 18 afghans. Its good but just because the weather is getting warmer doesn't mean the homeless won't need afghans this winter. So now is the time to get to work so when the cold weather comes back we will have a stock pile. That said...if you have an idea to make a difference don't let it fall by the way side get it going and make it happen.

Labels: afghans

So for a few months now we have all been working on making squares for the afghans and it is going very well. I have learned so much from so many people. But there is nothing like tried and true practice. So I am trying and I am practicing but I will tell you this scalloped edge I am trying to do around these squares is a little harder then I thought it would be. If you get interrupted all the numbers are off and I have to start my count over and sometimes it looks like I have more then I do and well lets just say I have had to pull it out and start over a few times. I think that I am getting the hang of it but I don't think it will look as good as the others for now. But with time I will improve. It is just as warm with a few mistakes as it would be if the trim was perfect. And as one of my sisters wrote when she sent me a sweater that each mistake was a stitch of love. Well there such is a lot of love stitched in this afghan. I suppose it is like all the other things we do I may not be perfect but if I keep trying and I do it with love in my heart then the results will stitched with love. So stitch your day with love.

Labels: afghans