Only a small part

I am only a small part of the big picture.  I have so many helpers to get everything accomplished.  I wish I could show you all of the behind the scenes people that help me put everything together.  If you've been reading my blog for a while, you've seen many of them, but probably not all.

First, the quilts.  I'm the area coordinator for Binky Patrol.  We are one group of many www.binkypatrol.org across the country and there must be well over a thousand ladies who work tirelessly to make quilts and blankets to give to kids in crisis.  That's our motto.  We don't judge on your situation.  If you are a kid (and who isn't) and you need a quilty hug, you get one.  I don't care if you are 2 or 92 and I hear about a need, I do my best to get you a quilt.  Now, there is no way I can do that on my own.  I rely on my many members to help me out.  We have our regular meetings, the 3rd Sunday of the odd months and our special meetings, whenever Carla is feeling generous.  We work at home and there are probably 30 regular ladies who work to make crochet, knit and fleece blankets and afghans.  There are ladies who take home scraps that the high school kids cut out and sew them back together into quilt tops.  Carla and I quilt those up and then we send them home with now 4 binding buddies who put the binding on them and bring them back to me.  I say we make about 100-200 quilts a month, plus the fleece and crochet/knit blankets so maybe 250 blankets a month.  That's a lot to find homes for.  I wish I was better at math and could keep track.  February 26 will be our 10th birthday for our chapter.  I'd say we have made and given away probably 20,000 blankets since we started.  That's just a rough estimate since in the beginning we were much slower and then there was the whole Quilts for Japan summer where we went crazy :)

But, I'm just a very small part of that.  Are you kidding me?  There's no way I could do all of that myself!  I mostly organize things and store fabric at my house.  My husband is very patient and has resorted to staying in the 'man cave' where he reads comic books and plays poker on the computer and watches football.  Oh, how I love football!  No, I don't watch, but it keeps him from asking me for things so I can quilt.  Yes, there was a game on last night and I loaded up enough backing fabric for about 10 quilts.  Yay>

So, then there's my high school.  I have an endless resource of energy there.  All you ever read about in the newspapers and hear about on TV are the bad things teenagers do.  Well, let me tell you, these kids have so much good in them and energy you wouldn't believe.  Just find a way to tap into it and you don't need to sell it, you can harvest it and put it to use.

I discovered a way to use it about five years ago and we've been putting the kids to work ever since.  They cut fabric and some even sew.  Not perfectly but if perfection is your goal, move on :)  Feeling depressed?  Get around about 20 high school kids and you won't need medication.  These kids are crazy in a good way.  Just give them some food and they go and go.

Give them a task and a little direction and they will collect boxes of stuffed animals and give with their hearts. They will make cards for our wounded soldiers and stuff stockings and bake cookies. 

So, you see, I'm only a small part of all of the good things going on around here.  I encourage you to become a small part in your neighborhood.  Lots of little pieces working together.

Do you want to be a part of our group?  We'd love to have you make quilt tops.  You can fit quite a few in a flat rate box.  You can get those for free from the post office.  Go online and ask for the Game Boxes.  They are long and skinny and self sticking.  I think they come 10 to a pack and they deliver them to your door for free.  What a deal.  Then you can pay for shipping online and it saves you a few cents and the post office person will evn pick up from your house.  Cool.  Message me for my address if you want to join in.

I'm off to mail the stuffed animals today and then build two more sets of shelves and take some aluminum cans to the recycling.  I'm procrastinating because I have 5 boxes of lab books to grade.  You can come over and grade lab books if you want.  That' would be totally cool too.