To all (3) of my Knitting Friends out there - Put your skills to good use!

Care Wear
www.carewear.org

Care Wear is a nationwide group of volunteers who knit, crochet, and/or sew, providing handmade baby items to hospitals. All Care Wear items are given free to infants, children and their parents.

There are no membership rules, no dues, no quotas, or obligations. It is hoped that volunteers will contact local hospitals to learn what is needed. Or, send completed items to one of the Hospitals on the Hospital List. Care Wear items are given FREE to infants, children, and their parents. The families usually keep the items as a memento, especially those for tiny preemies. Below is a list of items that are accepted at these Hospitals:

Knitting and/or Crochet	Sewing/Crafts
hats booties mittens bedsocks shawls burial gowns sweater sacques/sweaters blankets (30" x 30" or larger) edgings on receiving blankets lap blankets finger puppets chemo hats w/braids	preemie & full term hats kimonos bibs hug-a-bears (large & small) diaper shirts burial gowns flannel mattress covers quilts burp cloths fabric toys finger puppets incubator covers booties medical dolls neck pillows walker caddies hand puppets

Some other good points or facts about this charity:

They gather twice a year for anyone in the tri-state area that would like to come and spend a few hours to see what others are making. In the spring they get about 50 to 60 women, men and college kids that come in, and in the winter about 100.  This event is hosted at Hood College. This spring they had 64 people and turned over 2,236 handmade items to Frederick Hospital in Maryland.

This charity is good for all ages and genders. You are not on a timeline and whatever you make can be mailed to the hospital of your choice with the Care Wear Labels.

One of my colleagues told me about Care Wear and how she has been actively participating for years. Below she shares her experience with the company:

Debi: I have be volunteering for CareWear for over 10 years now along with my daughter. My daughter was in college at the time and put together a group and taught them how to crochet. The great thing about Carewear is that you can send the items to any hospital on the list that needs what you are making. When going to the website you can view past newsletters, find patterns and many other links. If you think anyone would like to get the newsletter just send Bonnie an email with their address. When doing that ask that she send the current newsletter, hospital list and pattern book. She will mail all three to whomever you want. Please remember that you can use whatever pattern you like though and do not have to use the ones that they have.

List of Patterns

Contact Info:

Bonnie Hagerman
c/o Hood College
401 Rosemont Avenue
Frederick, MD 21701
Phone: 301-696-3550
Fax: 301-696-3952
hagerman@hood.edu

MORE RELATED OPPORTUNITIES:

Another Change ReACTion blog viewer responded to my post about Care Ware with another opportunity that is very similar.  The organization is called Project Linus http://www.projectlinus.org/

Project Linus is comprised of hundreds of local chapters and thousands of volunteers across the United States. Each volunteer and local chapter all work together to help us achieve our mission which is to provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need through the gifts of new, handmade blankets and afghans, lovingly created by volunteer "blanketeers."

Together we have distributed over three million blankets to children in need since our inception in 1995.

Sally Jones: I've been a member for sevearl years now. We make blankets for kids in hospitals in our area. We support all the local hospitals in Nova and meet once a month at my neightbor's house. We welcome anyone who wants to join. The nice part of this group is you don't need to know how to crochet or knit, although several do. We make blankets out of felt and put different edging on them, so no skills are necessary.

Here is a useful link on how to Start Your Own Chapter!