New 50 States Project Announced

Our new Share Our Gifts 50 States project features the Lee Shore Center in Kenai, Alaska. We are to send a hat and mittens (hand crafted only) to arrive by November 25th. Please use the link to read about the details on this great 'giving' opportunity.

http://sharingourgifts.blogspot.com/

General Update on K-HeLP (Knitted Helmet Liners Project)

We have experienced a small flurry of interest and activity with K-HeLP and wanted to share it with you.

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An email from my nephew contained this comment when he received his first 'goodie box' after being deployed to Iraq: "The helmet liners went fast. Once the weather cools down I'm sure I'll have a few guys asking about them. Thanks." He is in a small, isolated group of soldiers and more liners are headed his way in the next box.

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A volunteer found our project by 'Googling' - which delighted me when she wrote in support and with enthusiasm as she began her first liner.

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A group in Saginaw, Michigan donated 45 liners to their local armory and emailed us the total to include in this project.

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We received the following email and hope some of our readers can help with this request. Please email me with any Canadian project info so we can post it for all to find.

Hello Kae,

I have read about the helmet liner project in several magazines and have found your website as well. However, I am Canadian and would like to knit for the Canadian soldiers. Do you know of any projects up here in Canada? Thanks for the help and good luck with the 2010 challenge!

Thanks,

Melanie

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Another great email we received is the following:

Hi,

I am the volunteer coordinator with the American Red Cross at Fort Dix, NJ.

I decided yesterday (when we gave out the last of our donated knitted helmet liners) that I would start a campaign to have helmet liners knit for the soldier deploying from Fort Dix. We canteen on a regular basis for mobilizing soldiers from all over the country. We recently received some knitted helmet liners and put them out for the soldiers. They quickly disappeared. We wished we had more. I have since sent out word ot all the American Red Cross chapters in New Jersey to help with this project.

Do you have any suggestions or pointers you can offer?

Thanks for any help you can offer.

Joan Brown

Volunteer Coordinator

American Red Cross of Burlington County

Fort Dix Service Center

In a follow-up email that we received from Joan after we sent suggestions she offered this additional information about Fort Dix and her situation.

"Fort Dix has just recently merged (Oct 1st) with McGuire AFB and Lakehurst NAS and we have become the nation's 1st megabase. We will have the Army, Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard and Marines all operating out of this joint base.

"It is an exciting time of change for all. We have 1 Red Cross Service Center located on Fort Dix which will service all branches of the military."

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WOW! What a mission and opportunity to serve our men and women in uniform.

My purpose in including the emails in this update is to help these other people with their projects. The reason that Carla and I had teamed up together with K-HeLP is to provide helmet liners for every service man or woman who wants one. The more people who are knitting the faster we will reach this goal.

I am happy to be the contact person for any questions or information you need. Just ask and I'll do my best to find out or help in any way I can.

Happy knitting everyone.

Sharing Our Gifts Donation Sent

I decided to participate in this project, found a slipper pattern that seemed simple enough I could follow it and started knitting. The slippers knitted up so fast I decided to do 2 pair with matching hats. They were mailed off last week and have arrived - please click the logo above for a direct link to the donation site and her write-up.

Here are the pictures. Since I find knitted slippers very slick on hard surfaces, I purchased a bottle of 3D fabric paint and decorated the bottoms so that they had gripping power. These are going to a veterans home so I didn't want any 'slip and fall' issues from the slippers.

Here is the link to the slipper pattern I found. It is easy and free.

http://blog.innerchildcrochet.com/?p=358