Our group continues to be active creating beautiful, warm blankets which will be donated to a local Windsor-Essex County long term care home in December 2023. We are grateful for some yarn donations from community members which we have been using to help with our project. The recipient for this year will be announced in late November or early December. Thanks to everyone for your continued support!
We were delighted to choose Riverside Place Long Term Care Home as the recipient of the 2021 Warm Wishes Project (blankets for seniors). Riverside Place is a 96 bed long term care home located in east Windsor. We delivered 96 blankets and cards to Riverside Place on December 9th. Given the circumstances of the on-going Covid-19 pandemic, the home staff planned to wash each blanket before providing them to the residents. Hopefully, next year, we will be able to make a special day of delivering the blankets by setting up tables in a common area of a home where residents can meet members of our group while choosing a blanket. We hope Riverside Place enjoys some extra warmth this winter! Thank you to our volunteers for their on-going commitment to this special project! Some of the beautiful blankets made by our volunteersDelivery dayOnce again, our group was able to donate a variety of winter weather accessories to the Welcome Centre Women's Shelter. This year our group created a variety of slippers, hats, scarves and ear warmers. We hope these items provide some warmth during the transition period for those who use this valuable organization. We also enclosed some adorable holiday cards which were made by students from Hetherington Public School.
The Warm Wishes Project was able to donate this beautifully crocheted heart blanket to Paramed, one of Windsor's home care organizations. We suggested that a free draw be held for the blanket as a way of thanking their staff for all the hard work and service they have provided to our community. We wish that we had been able to offer an item to all of their dedicated and deserving staff! We are especially grateful for all the sacrifices they have made throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
We were pleased to gift the ICU staff members of both campuses, of Windsor Regional Hospital, a variety of handmade items to thank them for their dedicated service during the on-going Covid-19 pandemic. Inspirational cards were also sent along. We hope this small gesture helped to brighten their day. We cannot thank these individuals enough for their dedication to providing care to members of our community who are gravely ill.
Our group was excited to participate in the Children’s Aid Foundation Holiday Program this year! Our volunteers crafted or otherwise donated the following winter weather items: - 23 pairs of mittens/gloves - 32 hats and head/ear bands - 24 scarves and neck warmers - 14 slippers and fuzzy socks We also provided 7 full size crocheted blankets to their adopt a senior program. The very cute dog was not included with the donations :)
We are pleased to announce Country Village as the recipient of the Warm Wishes Project for 2020.
Country Village is a 104 bed long term care home located in the small rural community of Woodslee, Ontario. We delivered 104 blankets and cards to Country Village on December 5th. Usually, we make a special day of delivering the blankets by setting up tables in a common area of the home where residents can meet members of our group while choosing a blanket. Given the circumstances of this year with Covid-19, this was not possible. The home staff plan to wash each blanket before providing them to the residents. We hope they enjoy some extra warmth this Christmas. Thank you to our volunteers for your on-going commitment to this special project! Our group has continued to create and donate items related to supporting our community as we continue to progress through the COVID 19 pandemic. In June, the Warm Wishes Project received a financial donation of $70.00 from the OSSTF Union in recognition of our efforts for making and donating caps, mask extenders, and masks. We greatly appreciated this contribution which allowed us to purchase additional supplies to make more caps, masks and mask extenders. In July, approximately 25 face masks were donated to a medical clinic in west Windsor to help ensure seniors in our west end community would not go without a mask. In addition to this, we were delighted to send along 142 handmade greeting cards and some small canvass paintings created by our volunteers and their family members to the residents of a long term care home in Windsor. In September, we were able to donate some mask extenders to teachers and support staff at a local elementary school, as well as, greeting cards to individuals residing in a retirement home in Kingsville. This month, 8 caps were donated to another local long term care home and 8 caps were provided to medical clinic staff in the west end of Windsor.
We have also continued crocheting blankets for our annual donation to a local long term care home. We will be announcing this year’s recipient shortly! We hope that you and your loved ones are staying well as we continue to navigate through the COVID 19 pandemic. Over the last several weeks, our group has changed our focus from creating blankets to creating items for those who have been working through the COVID 19 pandemic.
We wanted to join the other community efforts which have been contributing during this difficult and unprecedented time. We came up with the idea of using our handicrafting talents to make and donate scrub caps to help protect health care workers hair and mask extensions to help protect the ears of essential workers who need to wear masks for extended periods. We have been able to donate these items to a few of our local long term care homes, a retirement home, the temporary hospital at St. Clair College, community personal support workers, funeral home professionals and Canada Post employees. It has become ever more evident how every single person contributes to the world we live in. One of the Warm Wishes Project’s favourite quotes is “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has - Margaret Mead”. This quote rings true as we observe all the kindness and sharing of talents and gifts that so many organizations and individuals have shared. As we continue to navigate the challenges of the COVID 19 pandemic, we hope that you and your loved ones are staying well and safe. We hope that 2020 is off to a great start for everyone. Our group was very busy last year creating an abundance of beautiful blankets and shawls to help with keeping others warm and cozy. We had a large inventory of items at the end of 2019 and we are still distributing some of our inventory. We were able to provide donations to two local long term care homes in December 2019: Bruce Villa and Regency Park Long Term Care Home. One of the philosophies of our project is to set up our donations in a public space within the home, similar to a craft fair. This way the individual can chose an item according to their personal preferences and this creates a social event for the people living within the home. Each year, our volunteers strive to create unique items in a variety of colours, sizes and patterns for people to choose from. All items are provided at no cost to the person. We often hear wonderful stories from people living within long term care about their past or present hobby of knitting and/or crocheting. Many people will join us for the entire event socializing. We would like to thank our dedicated volunteers who work tirelessly throughout the year and to Bruce Villa and Regency Park for inviting us into their homes. Pictures of some of our volunteers helping with our 2019 donation delivery. We do not take photos of recipients for privacy reasons.
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