Handmade Especially For You

 February 21, 2010

Today’s topics:

         Richstone Family Center gave us an award

         Yarn companies continue their generosity

         Female inmates at Moffat County Jail benefit from scarfing

         Chapter development

         We distribute at least 400 comfort scarves per month

And now for the details:

Richstone Family Center gave us an award for all the comfort scarves we have donated to them. What I like best about this award is that it emphasizes that we make a difference.  This, after all, is our goal: to raise the self-esteem of the women who receive our scarves and make a difference in their lives.  We hope our contribution helps the women get on the path for a happier, more productive, and most of all, safer life.

Other shelters are equally thrilled with our contributions, even though they didn’t give us an award.  Laura Kelly, our contact at Laura’s House, a shelter in Laguna Ranch dedicated “to ending the silence of domestic violence,” sent us this note:

We thank you for sharing your heart with Laura’s House. . . . We thank you for your support and for being a part of creating healthier and happier futures for the many families we serve.

James Lewis, CEO of the Long Beach Rescue Mission, sent us the following note, about the response of women at Lydia House to our scarves:

Each woman that receives a scarf appreciates the love and care that was put into each one.  The women often comment on how beautiful they are and how much they love that they are handmade!  Thank you for caring for our women in this way.

Lori Hentcy, Board President of the Women’s and Children’s Crisis Shelter in Whitter, also expressed her appreciation:

It takes special people to reach out a helping hand to those in need.  You are just such people!!! . . . We help (our clients) rebuild their lives and give them back hope and dignity.  We want you to know that you . . . are a significant part of this process.

From these notes, I hope you see that the scarves you make are very important to the womean who receive them.  Almost every shelter sends very moving notes of appreciation to us.  I will share more of them in the next newsletter.  

We have received new and very generous yarn donations from Crystal Palace Yarns, Handpainted Knitting Yarns, and Karabella Yarns.   I have been using these new yarns in my most recent kits and the resulting scarves are incredibly beautiful.  On behalf of those who make the scarves and those who receive them, thanks to all these companies for their very generous support!  Without yarn, we couldn’t make comfort scarves.

In the January Newsletter, I mentioned how making comfort scarves helped the female inmates at the Moffat County Jail in Craig, CO direct their energy into productive activity instead of fighting.  Peggy Bomba, volunteer crochet instructor there, and I are now in close contact.  I sent her a case of kits, colorful cardboard rulers my husband made, and a few of the Handmade logo key chain tape measures for her “graduates.”  Here’s what she wrote:

The girls had a lot of fun with the kits. . . Hopefully, I'll have a box ready to send to you next week.  Thanks for the cardboard rulers . . . the girls are using them.   I gave a key chain measuring tape to each of my "community service" girls.   They'll be able to use them.

You see, we make a difference on many levels.

Chapter development is coming along, although not as quickly as I hoped.  Our more long standing chapters are supplying their shelters.  Vicki Ringer, head of the San Fernando Valley chapter, delivers 15 comfort scarves to Haven Hills each month.  Renee Hoffman, head of the Long Beach chapter, delivers 20 a month to Interval House.  Margaret Grieve, head of our Nelson, BC chapter, brought “a large bag full to overflowing to the Nelson Crisis Pregnancy Center.”

More people have inquired about starting chapters, but it seems that once they learn what it takes they have backed off.   We know every community has abused women and many have shelters for them.  It’s just a matter of time that our scarf project will spread and more and more survivors of domestic violence will receive them.

In February, our Los Angeles/South Bay chapter distributed 400 comfort scarves (not including those of the chapters mentioned above)!  Our local participants are very enthusiastic about making scarves and so are our out of town contributors. We need every scarf maker to maintain this level of contribution to our shelters. 

Happily, Barbara Klein again donated the shipping of the scarves to the farther away shelters.  This enabled me to devote more time to kit making.  June Grossberg, owner of Concepts in Yarn, our biggest supporter, donated a table swift so Donna Bybee can wind balls of yarn from the huge skeins donated by yarn companies.  This has really speeded up kit making, so it helps us all -- kit makers, scarf makers and scarf receivers.  Chris Needham still wraps all the scarves, a huge job given that the number of scarves we all make has grown so much.  

We need everyone.  We need yarn donors.  We need scarf makers.  We need yarn winders.  We need cash donors.  Thanks in advance for whatever you contribute.  Keep up your good work.  I count on your dedication.  Thank you for making a difference!

So, if you want to donate scarves or yarn or if you want to send a check, please mail to:

Handmade Especially for You c/o Leslye Borden

30065 Grandpoint Lane

Rancho Palos Verdes CA 90275

Thanks in advance, Leslye