Primary Children's Donation

This year I decided to donate to Primary Children's Medical Center because I am at the busiest time of nursing school and didn't have the time to put into planning the logistics of sending our donation this time around, to another country. So this donation went locally. I decided to donate here because I recently did my nursing rotations at this hospital and saw the children that could use a hat or scarf to keep them warm. I worked on the oncology unit and wanted to help these children find warmth somehow with all the burdens that already weigh them down. Hopefully these will brighten someone's day as it did ours when we dropped them off!

Thanks to all those that donated all of the time to make these items.
We donated a total of 135 hats and 41 scarves. Thanks for helping make this happen!

I brought along some of my little helpers so that they could get a glimpse of what it's like at a Children's Hospital.

Delivery to School in Afghanistan

I just got the rest of the pictures from my friend in Afghanistan. I am so excited that we were able to do this. Thanks again for everyone that helped make this possible!
Here is the email that Stewart sent to me, "I am about to leave country, I finally was able to take the scarves, hats, gloves, and hygiene items to the Tornau School in the Chowkay valley. School was just dismissed as we arrived, and I handed the boxes of items to the school headmaster and his teachers to avoid the inevitable riot that would have ensued had we given the items directly to the kids. Interestingly, about 8 kilometers further up this valley, we came into 3 heavy ambushes while trying to exfiltrate the valley after looking at a road we are funding in the Dewagal area. Hopefully acts of good will like this will aggregate and allow for progress in the area."

First Ones to receive scarves and hats

I am going to add the email that Stewart sent me so you know how things are going to be delivered. I am so glad I found someone that could do this for us and make sure that it gets to the right people. Thanks Stewart from all of us here in the U.S.!

His email, "Yesterday I tried to get to the Asadabad Orphanage, but due to the excessive rain, most of the kids had been evacuated. We found a little girl and little boy to give a full set (scarf, hat, gloves) to. It was a cold day - you can see in the picture that the little girl didn't even have any socks on - that must have been real cold.

My preference is to hand out most of these items to the little girls - they don't have a very nice to start off with, and once they hit puberty it goes downhill fast."

The shipment arrived in Afghanistan

I just wanted to report that he received the shipment. I am so excited that he got it. He will be delivering it to an orphanage or a refugee camp this weekend. I can't wait to get pictures, so when he emails them to me, I will put them on the blog as soon as possible! Thanks again for donating, I am so excited to see their faces when they receive the wonderful things that everyone donated.

Thanks for donating

I have received far more than I expected on such short notice. Thank you for all that helped donate their time, talents and money to send this shipment.
Here is what will be sent:
48 Scarves
52 Hats
45 pairs of gloves
2 boxes full of hygiene supplies
I am planning on sending out the shipment on Thursday, January 21, 2010. I will post as I get information on when they receive our shipment and hopefully be able to post pictures!!! I can't wait to see how we helped others around the world. Thanks for all of your help.
Emily

Shipment to Afghanistan

I just wanted to let anyone that is trying to gather items for me right now for the Afghanistan Shipment that I will need the items by January 15, 2010. That way I can get it ready and ship by January 21, 2010. I want to get it there soon so that they can still use the items while it's still cold. If you can't get anything to me by then it's ok. I am still needing items all year long so keep working on it. Email me if you need my address to send items to me. Thanks!

Children's Hats

Just met Tanya! She heard about my service project and was quick to volunteer hats! She had already donated many hats to a near by school for kids in need and had some left over hats. Thanks for donating these, there are 15 more kids that will receive warmth because you, thanks Tanya! I am so grateful for all those that are working so hard to get things gathered for me, it makes me so happy to hear so many people want to help.

Pictures

I am going to post pictures as they are sent to me so everyone can see how others are doing.
It's fun to see the difference in each scarf made. Thanks again for all of your help!
These were made by my friend Marge. She has set a goal to make one male and one female scarf each week (2 scarfs each week)! Wow!! Good job!

Here is my first scarf and hat

I have never crocheted a scarf or hat before. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Trust me! The hat was even easier because I bought a hat loom and it was a piece of cake. I think I can do that one in my sleep! So if you have started gathering items or making them, feel free to send me pictures. I want everyone that is helping to be a part of this too. If you want your picture uploaded email it to me at wrappedinloveservice@gmail.com . It's fun to see the different ways people are contributing.
I also just heard back from a good friend that is serving in the military in Afghanistan and he told me of a great need there with refugees. I am going to try and send a package in the next month to get some things to people as soon as possible (he is going to hand deliver them himself and take pictures), but like I said before this is ongoing for next year. Don't feel stressed if you can't help right now whenever you can will be great! Any donations will buy all of these items to send to people in need. Thanks for all of you love and support! Emily

Here is a portion of his email from Afghanistan: I got your email about the scarves.

If you were to send them here, I would be able to make sure they get distributed to people in need. It's very cold here right now and we have many refugee camps in the immediate area and throughout the province. Kunar is very kinetic right now - my FOB is less than 5 K from the Pakistani border. We have refugees from the Pech and Korengal valley's, in addition to Pashtun tribesmen pushed over from Pakistan - it's getting much colder as we head into winter now too.

If you want to send scarves and other humanitarian assistance, you can send it to me:

Stewart Brough

PRT Kunar, Camp Wright

Asadabad

APO AE 09354

if you are sending it next year, you can replace my name with the title "Civil Military Operations OIC" and it will get to the civil affairs team here in the province.

If you send it to me, I can actually get you some pictures of the people we distribute it to. You'll get to help people in need, but you'll also contribute to the war effort here by showing that Americans care about the Afghan people

Size of Scarfs

If you want to make scarfs and are wondering on a good length. I have measured out some of the scarfs I already have (this is only for suggestion you can make then any way that you like). But if you want good width and length to go by, I measured the scarfs at 8-9 inches wide and 4 1/2-5 feet long. Like I said, you don't have to go by these measurements, just some people like something to go by so feel free to use these if needed.

Here are a few links my good friend found online for me to help any that are just learning or need a good pattern for scarfs.


http://www.crochetpatterncentral.com/directory/scarves.php (this is a simple pattern for people like me, just learning!)
http://www.bernat.com/pattern.php?PID=2580&cps=21191
http://crochet.about.com/library/blbegscarf.htm

Wrapped In Love

This time of year always has me wondering "how many people are out in the cold freezing to death? When I sit here in my warm cozy house..." Isn't it time I do something about it? Well enough talking about it. I have had many ideas come to me over the past week and here it goes!! I sat in church last Sunday listening to a story a dear friend of mine told of how her mother spent countless hours crocheting scarfs and hats with the yarn she had laying around. She worked on these all year round and produced countless hats and scarfs. This was the inspiration needed to get me going on my new project.

"Wrapped in love" is what I am calling it. My goal is to try to get the word out to as many people as I possibly can to get their help in wrapping our loved ones around the world. Some laugh and say, "Oh here you go! How will you do this?" Well I know I can do this with the help of others around me. I know there are others out there that are feeling the same thing as I am at this time.

"How do I help other people when I have been blessed with so much?"
"I don't have a lot of money, but I want to help!"
"Who can I find in need that will want my help?"

Well I have thought long and hard about these situations and I figured that if we gathered as many scarfs, hats and gloves we can begin helping those that need our help.

Crocheting or knitting scarfs and hats. Ask around, you might find people that have loads of yarn just sitting around their homes. Garage sales, dollar stores, Walmart, Hobby Lobby, Deseret Industries, etc. If you have any more ideas that are low cost for yarn, feel free to share where you have found it.

You can buy gloves for as low as a dollar. After Christmas sales are the best, watch for those. You can even buy hats and scarfs if you don't have the time to make them. Any contribution is needed whether it is made or bought. You will be helping so many people find warmth through us.

I am starting this now because people are already in the mind frame of trying to help others around. I want to give us enough time to really make a difference. So we are beginning today and hopefully by this time next year 2010, we can deliver this to the people that need it. This is strictly a service project. There is no profit of any kind. If money is donated it will be to buy yarn, hats, gloves, and scarfs. Decide what you can do and please help, let's do this together!