A blanket burrito wrap? Yup...and a wrap on our 8th Annual No Sew Fleece Blanket Event.
Eight years ago two moms decided to teach their children about empathy and compassion for others by making blankets for sick children in the hospital. They invited some friends to gather together and make blankets. This activity led to our nonprofit, which provides volunteer opportunities for families on a monthly basis.
In 2015, our first year, we made a total of about 60 blankets. We donated them to Children's Mercy hospital. We donated them to Children's Mercy hospital because we wanted to teach our own children that there are others in the world who are sick in the hospital and it's important to bring them joy. We wanted to develop empathy in our kids.
Fastforward eight years, and we now have thousands of KindCraft members, who join us monthly to do numerous service projects! We love what this small activity sparked in our community.
This year we made almost 600 blankets and were able to donate dozens of them to seven different organizations including:
Ronald McDonald House Charities of Kansas City Community Services League Mission Southside The Shadow Buddies Foundation Sunflower House KVC Kansas Children’s Mercy
This project included an in person event at the Olathe Community Center with over 100 attendees. In addition, we recruited more KindCraft members to be Project Leaders of groups in their own community. Numerous individual families made blankets from their homes and dropped them off to us.
Blankets from home
Here are some sweet families making blankets from the comfort of their living room. Many of them have said this is a tradition they have enjoyed doing for many years and others are planning to continue this project again next year!
Blankets from Scouts
Several Girl Scout Troops and Boy Scouts joined in on the project.
Girl Scout Service Unit 671 made 50 blankets for KVC.
Boy Scout RJ Tecco chose to do lead a group in making blankets for his Eagle Scout project. He worked directly with our President and showed admirable leadership skills. They made 50 blankets and donated to three different organizations.
Bentwood Elementary 3rd grade Girl scouts looked they had LOTS of fun making their blankets. They chose to donate to Mission Southside.
Girl Scout Troop 14 made blankets for The Shadow Buddies Foundation this year
Cub Scout Pack 3316 made these blankets for the Shadow Buddies Foundation.
Girl Scout Troop 4144 made 35 blankets with help from fellow BSA scouts from Troop 800 and 86 as well. These blankets were donated to KVC.
School Groups
Timber Creek Elementary in Overland Park made 25 blankets in total- 10 for KVC and 15 for Ronald McDonald House.
Students from Olathe Northwest High School made blankets for Children's Mercy. Students from Olathe South also donated several blankets!
Members of Blush Fitness Center South Olathe got together to make over 40 blankets and donated them to several of the 7 organizations.
Friends and neighbors gathered to make blankets together.
Over 100 attendees gathered at the Olathe Community Center to make blankets at our in person event on December 5, 2022.
Kansas Kips Gymnastics Club made 20 blankets for The Shadow Buddies Foundation.
We even have several furry friends join in on the fun :)
We loved donating the blankets to each of the 7 organizations. It was nice to see where the blankets will go and who they will bring comfort to!
We hope you will join us next year!