Congratulations are in order.  Yes,  to YOU.  Today Handmade did its long-awaited and planned for Mother’s Day shipping.  It wasn’t the heady, exhilarating experience it usually is, with all of us wrapping scarves, packing boxes, printing labels, sealing boxes, and a fun lunch afterwards.  But we were all together today in spirit because for sure, it couldn’t have been done without the participation of so many of you.

Here’s the results:  we shipped 1,465 comfort scarves and 150 health/safety masks to 37 shelters.  Wow.  I’m impressed.  It was a BIG job.  We packed the boxes over two days.  My husband helped.  Ann sealed a lot of the boxes, working alone in our garage.  My husband finished the job.  My house was a wreck.  But somehow, we got the job done.

I think it is incredible that Handmade accomplished so much under such difficult (for us) circumstances.  As you know, volunteers measured yarn in their own homes.  Volunteers wound the Magic Balls, in their own homes.  Volunteers knitted/crocheted scarves in their own homes.  Volunteers wrapped scarves to prepare them for shipping, in their own homes.  We worked very hard individually to achieve this great team effort.  Congratulations to all of us.  We couldn’t have done this without each other.

As for the masks, you may remember a few weeks ago, one of our shelters asked us to make masks for them.  I spread the word and several of our participants stepped up to do so.  So did my neighbor.  And someone I don’t know heard about what we were doing, and made a lot of masks for us to distribute.  In the end, we sent them to 4 shelters.  What a nice addition to the comfort scarves.

It may turn out that more shelters will want comfort scarves than what we have already sent.  Several told me they would like scarves as soon as things open up again.  So we’re not done.  We have a lot ahead of us.  We always have to keep our needles clicking.

You give yourself a big pat on the bag for all you have done to support abused women.

Love,

Leslye