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With the cold winter days coming fast, Hetzel Hall, Hubbard Hall and Hunter Hall joined Project Linus, a national organization devoted to making blankets to comfort and keep kids in need warm. The organization puts both time and money into making fleece blankets that will be donated to children in foster shelters for Christmas.
"We've been collecting money all year for this, so it's nice to see everything come together," said sophomore pre-vet major Kiah Wiggin.
Wiggin joined about 50 students in Hubbard Hall to sew blankets together with decorations from dinosaurs to SpongeBob SquarePants.
"It's nice to sit with people from your dorm and make blankets for a good cause," said Wiggin.
Project Linus was created on Christmas Eve in 1955 when an article titled "Joy to the World" appeared in Parade Magazine. Written by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Eddie Adams, the article profiled a young child who'd been going through intensive chemotherapy. She said her security blanket helped her get through the treatments.
After reading the article, Karen Loucks, creator of Project Linus, decided to provide homemade security blankets to Denver's Rocky Mountain Children's Cancer Center, and Project Linus was launched.
The organization is built up of 180 chapters, which are located in all 50 states. Blankets are collected locally and distributed to children in hospitals, shelters, social service agencies, or anywhere that a child might be in need of a security blanket.
Maureen Kathios Brown is the coordinator for Project Linus New Hampshire. She and the volunteers follow Project Linus' mission statement: "To provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children who are seriously ill, traumatized or otherwise in need of the gifts of new, handmade blankets and afghans, lovingly created by volunteer 'blanketeers.'
Brown previously worked for the department of defense and the IRS, which she found to be unfulfilling. It wasn't until Brown's granddaughter was put into a foster program that she realized she wanted to do something more positive in life. Since then, Brown has led the New Hampshire chapter with 5,447 blankets delivered since 2002, 956 of which have been donated since just Sept. 30 this year.
"Seeing 90 percent of the kids with a big smile on their face when they receive a blanket is what keeps me going," said Brown.
Brown delivered blankets all around New Hampshire in places such as Wentworth Douglass Hospital Pediatrics, Concord Hospital's pediatrics unit and St. Joseph Hospital in Nashua and the Seacoast Cancer Center. The one delivery Brown will never forget is to the family of Jonathan Higgins.
In the summer of 2007, the Higgins family from Seabrook was struck by tragedy while driving in Newington when they were involved in a three-car collision. While both parents sustained only injuries, their seven-year-old son, Jonathan, didn't survive the crash.
When Brown heard about the story, she was overcome with emotion and knew she had to help out.
"I wondered if he had siblings, as I wanted to provide a comfort blanket to his brothers or sisters," said Brown. "In the process of asking questions, I was in contact with the school principal and asked her if she thought it would be comforting to the students if we made a quilt."
Brown delivered a quilt piece to each child in Jonathan's class. From there, Brown created a memory quilt where each student drew a picture in a block for the quilt, which made enough for two quilts. The first one was left in the children's classroom and the second was presented to the Higgins family with the back decorated with Jonathan's favorite shirt - a yellow shirt with a pile of baseballs that read, "On top of the game."
"Since I have a granddaughter in middle school, when a child of this age is tragically killed, it impacts me quite a bit," said Brown.
This year, Cpl. Scott Dimond, a 39-year-old National Guardsman, was killed by an improvised explosive device on Oct. 13 in Afghanistan. Dimond had served 18 years on the police force in Franklin and raised his children, Luke, Ashlee, Alexis and Madison, with his wife of 12 years, Jennifer. Brown had blankets personally made for Dimond's children delivered by Elizabeth Corrow, the mayor of Franklin.
Hubbard Hall Director Faina Bukher knew Project Linus was an organization she wanted to donate to after working for Project Linus at previous institutions.
Hubbard Hall donated $400, which was used for the materials to make the blankets. The Hetzel, Hubbard and Hunter together donated an additional $220 for Project Linus for future blankets.
"We've been donating money for a few months, which part of money came from penny wars during the halls' floor wars," Bukher said.
Students participated in the floor wars donation for bragging rights and to donate for a good cause.
"Students battled to win up to the last minute where kids where dumping all their change as fast as they could," she said.
Participants in the fundraiser were excited to help out in hopes to join Project Linus again in the future.
"There was a great sense of community involvement, and the fun part of the fundraising was to see everyone come together," said sophomore architecture major Andrew Kopp. "This was the most meaningful social all year."
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