About
On our Project Linus Blanket Buzz pages, we display different events from across the country. Here you can read about and see where Project Linus blankets are made by volunteers and/or distributed to children in need.
We welcome your submissions to Blanket Buzz! To submit, please send us an e-mail and attach any pictures you would like for us to include.
Please Note: If you have several pictures then please let us know beforehand so that we can be watching for them.
Janesville, WI
A comment at a PTA meeting was all it took to start Judith, a Project Linus coordinator in Janesville, Wisconsin, thinking. Dr. Lynn Karges, principal at Roosevelt Elementary school, had noted the success of two after-school clubs, which were only possible because of the teachers and volunteers who had donated their time. If chess and Spanish were possible, why not knitting? The school board agreed, and an After-School Knitting Club was formed. Judith enlisted the aid of a local knitter, Anne Reed, and several other volunteers. At the first club "meeting" in September, twenty-eight 3rd-, 4th- and 5th- graders listened intently to guest instructor Jean Embery and the other volunteers. Starting the students with pre-prepared knitting needles (the first stitches were already cast on) allowed them to get straight to learning to knit. Casting on (placing the first stitches on the knitting needles) was taught in a later class. Mrs. MacMahon, the school's reading specialist, joined the class, occasionally reading knitting-related stories to the students as they worked. April, a local high school student, was available to assist the younger students on a more individual level. Volunteers knit small toys and pencil covers as unannounced prizes, and provided yarn and needles. The local knitting guild presented the club with a $200 grant for tools and supplies. The first project students completed was knit bracelets. Then they graduated to creating bell ornaments to hang on the school's holiday tree. Small knit dolls followed, and finally, the students began to create squares for a Project Linus blanket. A competition arose, and each student who contributed five or more squares to the Project Linus blanket was invited to a spring bonfire, complete with hot dogs and s'mores. By March, the students had knit enough squares to make a Project Linus blanket. This first donation quickly became very personal when April, the high school student who had been volunteering her time, was suddenly without a home. April's family lost all their belongings in a house fire. The students all agreed that their first Project Linus blanket should be given to their knitting friend. Members of the After-School Knitting Club continue to work on squares for Project Linus blankets. Fifteen dedicated students and three volunteers meet each week to share needlework skills and club's success has sparked interest in other area schools. The Janesville chapter of Project Linus has donated blankets to the Red Cross, Mercy Hospital, House of Mercy (a women's/children's shelter), Children's Service Society, HospiceCare, YWCA Alternatives Program (a domestic abuse shelter), AIDS Network, the Janesville Fire Department, Riverview/Dean Urgent Care Clinic and Respite Care.
