National Blanket Day is is tomorrow and I was blessed to be a part of the celebration. Last Friday, my eight year old nephew’s third grade class at Echo Hill Elementary invited me to be a volunteer as they made 22 blankets for Project Linus. I couldn’t help feel the excitement as I moved around the gym making sure that the kids knew how to cut and tie the blankets.
Project Linus is a great way to help others less fortunate than one’s self.
Taken from their National website:
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 statement, which states:
First, it is our mission 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.”
Second, it is our mission to provide a rewarding and fun service opportunity for interested individuals and groups in local communities, for the benefit of children.
It made my heart swell with pride as I looked around the gym floor as four children per blanket cut fringe on fleece blankets and tied them off.
I want to share a review with you that I wrote about a splendid
book published by Tilbury house. It is called
Give a Goat and it takes a look at one way in which children can make a difference in this world.
Give a goat
Jan West Schrock
Illustrated by Aileen Darragh
Picture Book
Ages 6 to 8
Tilbury House Publishers, 2008, 978-0-88448-301-4
It is a rainy day and the children in a fifth grade class are “restless.” So their teacher, Mrs. Rowell, reads them a true story about a little girl in Uganda who was too poor to go to school. Then someone gave the little girl’s family a goat and their fortunes changed dramatically. With the money that they earned from selling the goat’s milk the family was able to pay for the little girl to go to school.
After they hear this story the school children decide that they want to “give a goat” to someone like the little girl in the story. Their teacher warns them that such a project will take hard work and cooperation, but the children do not back down. This is something that they really want to do.
And so the children begin to do some research. They learn that an organization called Heifer International gives people free livestock to help them get back on their feet. The children learn that they are going to need to raise $120 to send a goat to a family in need. Will they be able to raise so much money on their own?
In this simply written and inspirational story the author shows her readers that children can indeed make a meaningful difference in the lives of others. She shows children that with some hard work and plenty of determination they can be a part of the “giving” and “passing on the gift” process.
In a world where there is altogether too much “gimme” and not enough “giving,” this picture book offers children a new way of looking at things.
Readers can visit the
Heifer International website to find out how they can be a part of this very worthy cause.
National Blanket Day is is tomorrow and I was blessed to be a part of the celebration. Last Friday, my eight year old nephew’s third grade class at Echo Hill Elementary invited me to be a volunteer as they made 22 blankets for Project Linus. I couldn’t help feel the excitement as I moved around the gym making sure that the kids knew how to cut and tie the blankets. 
