Volunteer Crafters Give Back To The Community

Though she’s been volunteering with Project Linus for 17 years, Arnold resident Ann Grieb doesn’t often see the direct impact of the nonprofit’s work. Most of the time, Project Linus drops off its blankets without seeing who receives them. But one day, while Grieb was delivering to Sarah’s House, a supportive housing program for families experiencing homelessness, a little girl came up to her and asked if she could have the blanket with the heart on it from her bag.

Grieb wasn’t sure if she was allowed to give the girl the blanket, but she was given permission when she brought the girl up to the counter to ask.

“Seeing that little girl, she hugged that blanket so tight,” Grieb said. “I just thought, ‘That blanket is going to be with her forever.’”

Project Linus is a nationwide nonprofit that focuses on creating blankets for children in need. The Annapolis chapter, established in April 2002, gathers at the Severna Park Community Center. During the meetings, volunteers create many types of blankets using different needlecrafts, including crocheting, knitting and sewing.

Once finished, the blankets are donated to local organizations, schools and hospitals, reaching kids from newborns up to the age of 18. The organization’s biggest project each year is creating fleece blankets for kids at Title I schools. Annapolis chapter volunteers made 426 fleece blankets last year.

“I got hooked,” Grieb said. “And then to find out that you were donating to children who were in need was even more special.”

Severna Park resident Jean Pallett also volunteers with Project Linus and has done so since her retirement in 2018. Pallett had already been familiar with the organization due to her mother volunteering before her death in 2017, so taking up volunteering herself has allowed her to feel closer to her mother.

In addition to quilting blankets, Pallett also works with kids to get them involved in volunteering. She has introduced Project Linus to a variety of kids interested in service learning, from elementary schoolers to the Crofton High School track team.

“(The elementary schoolers) get so excited to be helping these kids who might be their age,” Pallett said.

Project Linus and other craft-based nonprofits allow volunteers the chance to give back in creative ways from the comfort of their own homes. Many Project Linus volunteers work on blankets while watching television at night and then take them with them to the community center when the group meets.

Residents have taken advantage of other opportunities to volunteer through crafting as well. Another nonprofit called Stitches of Kindness encourages kids and other community members to get involved in sewing items for other organizations.

A nonprofit organization called Making Cards for Our Troops (MCFOT) offers community members the chance to volunteer through papercraft. Started in 2016 by Pat Brodsky and a group of fellow volunteers, MCFOT designs blank cards to be sent in care packages for soldiers, to make it easier for them to send messages back home to their families.

Though Brodsky originally intended for the card-making to be a one-off event, the volunteers who joined her were eager to do it again. In the nearly 10 years since its creation, the initiative has grown to the point where volunteers are creating tens of thousands of cards each year.

“It really does help our veterans,” MCFOT Vice President Roberta Zimmerman said. “There’s still troops that are stationed far away from home and can’t just go to the Hallmark store.”

Zimmerman has lived in Severna Park for 25 years and has been involved with the organization since 2020. Retiring just before COVID gave her the free time she needed to join the nonprofit. She uses her collection of over 250 sets of stamps to create cards, and she fundraises for the group by running a silent auction at a MCFOT event in the spring.

While the nonprofit typically meets at Club 164 in Annapolis, people began creating cards at home and sending them to MCFOT during the pandemic. More recently, the organization has begun holding events elsewhere in Anne Arundel County, with two community events at the Severna Park Library taking place on Saturday, September 13, from 2:00pm to 3:00pm, and Saturday, November 15, from 2:00pm to 4:00pm.

In addition to stamps, other volunteers create cards using a variety of mediums, including hand painting, photography and even cross-stitching.

“You volunteer, and you don’t feel like you’re doing any work at all,” Zimmerman said.