Pictures courtesy of Challenge Linus

Linus Van Pelt, the resident thinker of the Peanuts gang, is understood not just for his vacation speeches and Nice Pumpkin optimism but in addition for his fixed sidekick—his trusty blue blanket.

An everlasting supply of consolation, it even turned the main target of a 2011 ebook, Happiness Is a Heat Blanket, Charlie Brown. We’re all like Linus to a sure extent: Who doesn’t love snuggling beneath a toasty overlaying, particularly when it’s chilly exterior? However blankets may enhance our psychological well-being; in response to Psychology At present, such objects “deliver psychological power and help” to their customers. That’s the precise impetus behind Challenge Linus, a corporation that collects and distributes safety blankets to youngsters throughout the nation going by means of difficult instances.

The beginning of a significant mission

All of it started in 1995, when Challenge Linus founder Karen Loucks learn a Christmas Eve article about an inspirational three-year-old lady named Laura, who was preventing most cancers and had endured chemotherapy remedies for 2 years thanks largely to her safety blanket. Touched by the story, Loucks started quilting blankets and donating them to children at an area youngsters’s most cancers middle. Virtually thirty years later, Challenge Linus has supplied over ten million blankets and afghans—each handmade by volunteers—to children as much as age eighteen dealing with sickness, trauma, or different struggles.

As you may think about, it takes a village to make such a distinction. Challenge Linus has over 300 chapter coordinators throughout the nation who ensure that the gadgets crafted by its 80,000 volunteers (lovingly dubbed “blanketeers”) attain their locations. “A blanket could be left at drop-off factors arrange by the native chapter or given on to a chapter coordinator,” explains Patty Gregory, Challenge Linus’s nationwide president and CEO. “The coordinator collects, labels, and luggage all blankets after which takes them to native amenities comparable to hospitals and shelters, that are able to distribute them to children.” Additionally serving to the trouble: over a dozen different companies which might be mates to the Challenge Linus trigger, together with fellow Missouri-based corporations and nationwide manufacturers like Joann.

Placing the enjoyable in fundraising

Challenge Linus feeds the inventive wants of its crafters by offering lessons and holding particular occasions that not solely increase cash and consciousness but in addition encourage group.

• Gregory, an avid quilter herself, hosts month-to-month Scrappy Stitching with Patty periods over Zoom, throughout which individuals work on new tasks and get insights.
• Knit and Crochet Alongside is an annual affair during which folks register to obtain a particular sample, which they’ll use to make a blanket. Every particular person works at their very own tempo whereas sharing their progress with fellow Challenge Linus crafters on Fb.
• Its largest occasion is Nationwide Make a Blanket Day. Held on the third Saturday in February since 1999, it’s a day devoted to each selling the work of Challenge Linus and crafting blankets at native chapters.
• The group makes the vacations brighter each December with its Season of Giving fete, an annual push to collect blankets and lift much-needed funds.
• Each different yr, Challenge Linus holds a retreat for its coordinators and volunteers to allow them to come collectively to bond, share concepts, and be taught extra in regards to the group.

A unending want

Having been with the group for nearly twenty-five years, Gregory can affirm that the demand for safety blankets is, sadly, removed from waning. “Extra youngsters are born every year, a lot of whom will want us all through their childhood,” she says. “With out those that help our mission—each company and particular person—and our tens of hundreds of volunteers, we couldn’t do what we do.” So far as the influence of her group, Gregory will get reflective. “Actually, I can’t even put a face on the influence Challenge Linus has made,” she shares. “We really don’t know who particularly finally ends up getting our blankets more often than not, aside from it’s youngsters who’re sick and/or traumatized. Once we do hear tales and get thank-you notes, we’re so grateful. It provides us the vitality to proceed our work, realizing that we’re making a distinction to youngsters by displaying them that folks care and there may be goodness on this world.”

For more information, go to projectlinus.org