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.
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.
