Donations

I do make blankets and sometimes squares for blankets (with small amounts of yarn) to donate to the Linus Project, a personal favorite. They give the blankets to terminally ill kids in hospitals. They accept squares which volunteers put together to make blankets also. I have donated to them for years. If you visit their website they most probably have a vounteer who will meet you somewhere near you to pick them up. I have a large hospital nearby with a large children's wing, so when I have some ready, my volunteer will meet me there when he is delivering to it. I also donate to local women's and homeless shelters. Many people do not realize that if you can get some sort of record that you have donated these items, you can get the price of the materials off your taxes as charitable donations. Most of mine are made from yarns left over from other projects, but when I do purchase just for the donated ones, I have found that a simple letter from an administrative person (preferably on their organization's stationery) is quite sufficient for tax purposes. I also carry one or two in my car wrapped around dollar store toboggan and gloves. In my area there are certain places where the homeless are known to stay. I will drop by it and give them to those folks. Our family's worn out sweaters and sweatshirts, I make into blankets for our animal shelter. Some I stuff to make pillows for the animals also. I enjoy going in to bring a couple and see a cute little puppy or kitten snuggled up on one of my plllows. As to starting a group, I would think it would be as simple as fnding a group who wanted to make them and finding a place that wanted to take them. There is a small group of ladies in our town who meet weekly to chat and crochet/knit, then donate the items to a local outreach group. They started a few years ago and now that word has spread, people often drop yarn off at the groups leader's home for them to use.

I like to make crafts and give them as little extra gifts at Christmas time. As for donating items. I go to the dollar store and buy nice gloves and mittens and hats. They are not bad at all. I myself wear them.

I made a couple of blankets for Linus organizations. I am currently working on one for them right. I love to make hats so I am going to make a couple and drop them off to one of the local shelter.

I made a couple of scarves that I donated to a couple of shelters and I have a couple that didn't sell this year that I'll look to donate, along with a few more children's hat and scarf sets that I'll be making over the next couple of weeks.

I have never set up something like this but I have helped at my moms church with making blankets that was sent down to a womens mission in Mexico. But I am sure you can easily make things to donate buy choosing to who would want to donate, like if you want to donate to the homeless you could contact a shelter and ask if they would be willing to take your donations. Good luck. And great idea!