FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Sarah Guenther
972-325-7232
Low Tech, Low Cost, BIG Impact
Carrollton, TX (May 1, 2018) - Twenty-five years on the job and what do they have to show for it? For a small nonprofit called Warm Up America!, plenty.
They’ve been mobilizing an army of volunteers estimated at half a million strong from all walks of life. They come from corporate lunchrooms, church basements and after-school classrooms.
Their mission: provide a little bit of warmth for people in need. And they’ve succeeded.
More than a million hand-knitted and -crocheted blankets and accessories have wrapped recipients in warmth around the country and world. In 2017 alone:
• 1,000 afghans were delivered to Gulf Coast families rebuilding their homes after the devastation of Hurricane Harvey.
• 5,000 baby blankets and accessories were delivered to Parkland Hospital in Dallas, where they were donated to families with limited means.
• 275 afghans were delivered to Morehead State University in Kentucky for their Build-A-Bed project, co-sponsored by Americore. Build-A-Bed targets children of the working poor in Kentucky who are living in homes with not enough beds, or none at all.
• 16,000 baby caps were delivered to the University of California’s Preterm Birth Initiative and are being distributed through health facilities in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda.
• Retailer Pat Catan’s Warm Up America! annual campaign distributed 3,500 afghans to social service agencies in communities throughout Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Michigan.
Be a part of Warm Up America! It’s the perfect workplace program. Not only does it engage people in a community charity, but the skills of knitting and crochet are proven stress relievers…the perfect antidote for a high-tech workplace.
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ABOUT WARM UP AMERICA!
Started in a small Wisconsin town with neighbors knitting and crocheting afghans for neighbors in need, Warm Up America! is a charity that has warmed people's lives since 1991. Founder Evie Rosen came up with the idea of having volunteers knit or crochet small sections and then others join them together to make a full afghan, which quickly caught on. Thanks to the generosity of knitters and crocheters around the country, today Warm Up America! distributes warm afghans, caps and other items to tens of thousands of people in need.
