I can hear Andy Williams singing but I was there this evening - Andy Williams wasn't.
There was the Dallas Convention Center where I was one of almost a dozen Blanketeers representing Project Linus at Snowball Express.
This is the fourth year that Snowball Express has brought together approximately 1,500 children of our fallen heroes for a special weekend with their parent or guardian.
Each year Project Linus Blanketeers around the country have guaranteed that each child in attendance receives a new, hand-crafted blanket. (Blanketeers call them blankets; you might call it a quilt, an afghan or a fleece blanket.)
Project Linus of Collin, Dallas, Grayson and Rockwall Counties (Texas) was the host chapter this year. Theresa Costin, our chapter coordinator planned carefully. We knew the approximate number of children in each age group - from 5 to 18. We took more than enough blankets for each age group and we took 200 more blankets than the expected number of children so that the last children in line felt that they too had a good selection.
After dinner the younger kids were swooping through the hall with their blankets as capes and many were wrapped up in them starting to fade after a long day.
I didn't take photos but I will borrow some from my fellow blanketeers tomorrow and post them for you to see. The mountain of blankets was awesome.
This evening I received enough hugs, blessings and thank yous to hold me well into the New Year but the greatest joy . . . to have a youngster hold up a blanket to show me his treasure and it was one that I made. It happened several times this evening.
6 comments:
Thats awesome, good job! We all wish we could have been there. Saw the blurb on the news. The kids looked like they were having fun on the rock wall and getting Ranger autographs.
Aurora
Excellent blog, Miss Helen!
Thank you for the update! I'd been thinking of the event and our blanketeers off and on today. It sounds like the hard work you'all (I live in Texas now) did was well worth it!
Wonderful! Wonderful!!!
Kathy
Helen of Fleece - Reading your blog..I felt I'd been to the event! Thank you, thank you ...for all your hard work and for sharing the opportunity with us!
jaci
Thanks Helen for sharing this story, I ssaw the news and just knew the kids were having fun.Job well done is all I can say to all the blanketeers.
Midge
It is so sad that tragedy brought all these children and their families together, but it was an amazing and inspiring event of which we were only a very small part. But the children who had been to the event in previous years were actually looking for us with great anticipation.
Helen is right....I too had to fight back tears more than once watching the children get so excited in finding just the right one. I was especially moved when I saw a mom with one of the patriotic red white & blue quilts I had made. Since she stopped to say thankyou to Project Linus and ask me for one of the brochures about us, I mentioned it to her that I had made the quilt she was holding and was very happy she picked it for her child and that it was going to someone who really needed it. It really made me realize we do make a difference when I saw how happy she was holding that quilt.
One of the mom's who approached me (wrapped in her son's blanket and with tears in her eyes) during the blanket receiving said "You ladies don't even know us - yet you've done something so special that we won't ever be able to forget tonight. I'll have something to tuck my child in with each night because daddy can't do that anymore. And it will also be a hug from you ladies everytime that will bring back good memories of how important and special this trip has been for my kids."
We've already started thinking ahead for next year!
Kaye
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