Knitters and crocheters love to make items and give them away. Around the country, an army of hobbyists are on a mission: to make blankets, hats, scarves, mittens, and more for those in homeless shelters, foster care centers, and hospitals who need them most.
Warm Up America! was started in 1991 by Evie Rosen in Wausau, Wisconsin, where she ran a yarn shop and saw that the local homeless population needed blankets during the winter. Realizing that it takes a long time to knit or crochet a whole blanket, she decided to ask people to knit or crochet blanket sections that could be stitched together later. This way, people could volunteer to make as many or as few sections as they wanted. She figured out the patterns for 7-inch by 9-inch sections to be made into full-sized adult blankets, children’s blankets, and lap blankets, and her plan got underway. Today, the organization is run by Craft Yarn Council, a nonprofit trade organization.
Throughout the year, completed sections arrive at the organization’s main office in Carrollton, Texas (last year, it received a total of 119,445 sections), then get sent to volunteers across the country who join the blanket sections together. They decide how the sections will be laid out. Then, they either send the blankets back to the head office to be donated from there, or they donate them within their local communities.
Volunteers are creative with patterns and resourceful with materials. One volunteer, Teresa Peterson of Carrollton, Texas, delights in hosting regular meetups with hobbyists and getting them to knit blanket sections out of donated or scrap yarn. Volunteering for Warm Up America! has given her more than an outlet for her crafting; it has brought warmth and friendship into her life. “We sit and talk, laugh, eat, laugh, spread the word about Warm Up America! to anyone who stops to see what we’re doing, and did I mention we laugh? We laugh a lot! How can you not be happy when you’re crocheting or knitting with a group of friends?” she said.
Dee and Bill Scalzo, a retired couple from Grapevine, Texas, took up crocheting during the pandemic and found out about volunteering for Warm Up America! while researching where to donate the 25 blankets they’ve made. They now meet up regularly with Warm Up America! volunteers in town. “We learned what it means to belong to an encouraging, supportive community.”
The organization also actively looks for places to donate to. Cheri Prachniak, a coordinator at Warm Up America!, gave as a recent example the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, which opened a new facility in Houston, Texas, to provide permanent residences for veterans. “We said we wanted to provide a blanket for every veteran in their home. There were 161 veterans and we sent 165 blankets,” she said. Volunteers got the job done within a month or two. “Our makers are amazing. They love to make things for charity.”
