Check out this update from Grands ‘n’ More Winnipeg’s Warm Up to Winnipeg Campaign!
By: Jean Altemeyer
We continue to be blessed with folks who knit and crochet scarves for us to pass along to the newcomers and asylum seekers at Welcome Place. We’ve also been blessed by the donations that continue to support the Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign.
Warm Up to Winnipeg is a “win-win-win” project!
A few of the scarves made by local volunteers!
- A Grands ‘n’ More volunteer knits a scarf
- Someone else contributes the value of the scarf ($5.00/child item or $10.00/adult item) to the Stephen Lewis Foundation
- Then Grands ‘n’ More gives the scarf to Welcome Place for a refugee newly arrived in Winnipeg
We distributed about 415 scarves this year – plus some hats, mitts, neck warmers and headbands. These were created by over 40 different artisans! A couple of our dedicated knitters made over 100 scarves each for us in their years of knitting and crocheting! And that amazing group at St. Paul’s Anglican Church again gave us a huge box of scarves and a lovely big wad of money. What wonderful people they are.
A special surprise happened just before the holidays. As a result of the various sales and other early December efforts to get scarves donated, we took a large number of scarves to Welcome Place. Nasra surprised us with SEVEN black garbage bags full of many different yarns! An avid knitter had died, and her three daughters wanted the yarns put to good use. They had contacted Welcome Place, due to its work with the Syrian refugees, and Nasra, in turn, gifted us.
We sorted through the bags to organize them by type and colour. Many of our knitters then came to choose yarns. Those yarns not suitable for scarves went to a couple of refugee/newcomer programs teaching folks how to knit, and some went to another group connected with Main Street Project. Talk about the project that ‘just keeps on giving’!
Warm Up to Winnipeg was able to donate about $3100 this year to the African grandmothers, while also keeping the heads and necks warm for some of the newcomers to our City.
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