The children in the community hospitals really don't have that many toys or things to cheer them up while theyre in the hospitals. Many can't afford much, especially with high medical costs. Some don't even have visitors visiting them! A lonely joyless hospital is no place for a child to recover. H4H hopes that through making outfits for stuffed animals and also making friendship bracelets, the children will be cheered up.
vital stats:
people impacted:
1,000
people involved:
150
why it's important:
Some of our gifts for the children in Handmade 4 Hospitals include outfits for stuffed animals, warm hats for newborn babies, bracelets, cards, and many other thoughtful handmade gifts that'll increase the children's recovery time with the best hospital service possible. Happiness, we feel, is vital when a child recuperates from an illness and this program will reach out to children who have Same-Day Surgeries, are in the emergency room, and the Pediatric Department.
the plan of action:
One of the biggest factors in the project is getting support from local factories/businesses that sell or manufacture these dolls/stuffed animals and yarn. We have already received a generous donation of yarn from a local yarn store. I never expected the project to get as big as it has, but the responses from students, parents, and teachers of all ages has been astounding. We have over 50 participants and entire classes have taken up this project as well. Some of the participants already know how to crochet or knit, but the majority of them do not. Therefore, each person is either teaching or helping each other. For the most part, making the crocheted bracelets is difficult and the diversity of the group is a hardship, but all differences are put aside when working together on a project of such great service for sick kids in our community. Football players, cheerleaders, honors kids, musicians, 1st graders, and non-English speakers are just a few of the diverse groups that are working together for the first time to learn a new skill and join our cause.
how you can get involved:
We need ALL the help we can get! Anyone who is crafty, or knits or crochets or would be interested in helping distribute and wrap our little gifts can get involved.
project updates:
Final Grant Update
04/01/2011
Aariel Kantrow
75
500
It has completely changed the way we've done things. In the past, we didn't focus as much on measuring the change we've made. Not to say that we didn't care about measuring impact before, but I think being a grant winner has kind of shifted our priorities to goal setting and really taking notice of what we do and the kind of change we can make. It has also made me realize the importance of keeping updated and organizing EVERYTHING. The first few months after winning the grant weren't as well organized, but as we progressed and grew as a club, we were able to gain more organization and keep better track of our impact. The grant has given us more opportunities than I would have thought possible...it didn't just provide us with funding (which was an amazing help, by the way...we've done like 3-4 different projects this year, and we still have money left over!)but also provided us with great connections with Dunkin Brands (who have been of a lot of help to us),and helped to get our name out, which has introduced our cause to a lot of people and given us a lot of people who are willing to help out. When we tell people that we won a Get Well Soon grant, people become really interested. Many people have heard of DoSomething.org and were really interested to hear that we won a grant, and some other people had only heard of H4H but once they heard that we won a DS grant, they immediately wanted to learn more about DS.
1.) December drive: We collected over 500 bracelets, and 150 gifts to donate! Many members from the other art club at school, Caring Crafters, decided to join us and helped us make bracelets and gifts to donate. We donated the bracelets, along with all of the other gifts we made, to a local women and children's safety shelter called A Woman's Place. We also visited a nursing home in Edge Hill, PA and brought some bracelets to the residents there and sang Christmas carols.
2.) Friends of H4H- volunteering and participation: A school in Massachusetts decided to join our cause and donated over 150 bracelets that they had made! My church's college youth group also got involved joined us on our Christmas caroling visit to the nursing home in December. During an alternative spring break, my classmates who came to Mexico joined our cause and helped make bracelets, as well as helping teach crochet and bracelet making to the kids we visited in Mexico. The kids we taught crochet to in Mexico loved the bracelet making so much that they even decided to help us and donate some of the extra bracelets they had made!
3.) Wish granting: One of our big projects this year was completely unexpected, but really united us as a club, and as a school. One of our members, Alycia, knew of a little boy who was fighting a losing battle against cancer for the last few months, and was going to die very soon. He was a very special boy with one wish—to make 228,000 cranes—1,000 cranes for each of the children’s hospitals in the US, so that every kid who was fighting cancer, like he was, could have their wishes come true. He had made over 100,000, but still needed help, so we decided to jump on board of his project and help out. It was mainly through Alycia’s efforts that we were able to make such a large impact. Aly, who is president of the Arcadia University class of 2014, got dozens of students to help make over 3,000 cranes! We also had tremendous response from some Doers—The Karma Movement, a non-profit from Texas, saw my post about David’s Cranes project that I posted on the DoSomething facebook page, and helped spread the word about what we were doing. Literally, within 3 days, I received a message from the Karma Movement telling me that they had over 900 cranes to donate, from one of their members! It was incredible!
Our H4H Arcadia chapter just started off this year. We wanted to continue to do what our Bloomfield H4H chapter did last year- to reach out to the children's hospitals in our area (Philadelphia, PA). We had made a lot of our project plans based on the assumption that we would be able to do a lot of similar things as the Bloomfield chapter did; however, we had to change our course of action several times as things didn't always go as we had hoped or planned for. But, we learned that everything happens for a reason, and I believe that our projects made an even bigger impact because of it.
Back in Bloomfield, we have a very close relationship with the school system, so last year, it was relatively easy for us to gain permission to visit the elementary schools and teach crochet. However, here in Cheltenham Township, we did not have as great as a response as in Bloomfield, and haven't been able to get permission to visit the schools yet. Despite these minor setbacks, we had several surprises in store for us that we had not planned on.
The first was having an elementary school in Massachusetts get involved in our bracelet making project, and donating over 150 bracelets that they had made.
The second surprise was having the opportunity to travel to Mexico on an alternative Spring Break, and work with the children there, teaching them crochet and bracelet making. Many of my classmates loved our project idea, and decided to learn crochet so they could help me teach the kids there. A few of my classmates even joined H4H after we got back! We didn’t know much Spanish, and the kids didn’t speak English, so at first it was a bit of a struggle to communicate. However, the kids loved learning crochet and making the bracelets, and very soon, once we told them about our cause and why we make bracelets, a bunch of them decided to donate as well! One of the little kids named Felix, our biggest supporter, even informed us that his bracelets that he made were magical and would make all the sick kids in the world better. How cute is that!?
The third surprise that we had not anticipated was a little boy named David Heard. (I explained more about in the Highlights section) But basically, through David, we were able to connect with other DoSomething clubs, members of our community, and fold thousands of cranes and make one huge impact. Through David’s one wish, we are able to grant wishes for thousands and thousands of children across the US who are also suffering from cancer.
So, despite all the changes, our project has developed very well, and we have really grown to be a part of the community. We have assessed the needs of the Philadelphia area, which we have learned are completely different than Bloomfield, and this is why certain things have worked for us this year, and certain things haven’t.
Our project is basically divided into two parts (based on semesters). The first part was from September-December, where we made the gifts (over 500 bracelets and 150 baby hats, baby blankets, stuffed animals, dolls, pillows, toys, etc) and donated them to A Woman’s Place, and a nursing home.
The second part, which is still happening, is from Jan- end of April. We are currently finishing up all of the gifts, and will be visiting CHOP (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia) on April 30th to bring over the gifts and to do a craft day with the kids (crochet friendship bracelets and paper flowers) so they can make themselves something pretty and possibly even make a little handmade gift to cheer up their families and friends who are with them.
Awesome! :] We'd love to have you! :D
Our new project in the making is Bracelets 4 Haiti. We wanted to do something to help out and raise some money for Haiti, so we decided to make bracelets and sell them. I'm going to try and make a fb page for it later on tonight if I can, so all the info will be there :D
We do have a bunch of members that are out of NJ, and after June, we'll have a lot more because most of us are seniors lol so you won't be the only one not from Bloomfield. :]
A good way to get involved is to make things for hospitals in your own area. If you know how to crochet, knit, sew, weave, etc, you can make all sorts of cool stuff! :D Also look around and see if anyone in your school is interested in helping you. Even if there's only a few of you, it's a lot more fun than being by yourself. :]
Thanks for your interested! Keep in touch, email me at cello_chik_27@yahoo.com, and let me know what's up! :D
-Ari :]
Thank you!!! :] We are currently trying to do a bunch of new projects and really keep up with our cause, so if you have any suggestions, we'd love to hear them!!
Comments
I live in Idaho, but I'm interested in helping you guys. What can I do?
Awesome! :] We'd love to have you! :D
Our new project in the making is Bracelets 4 Haiti. We wanted to do something to help out and raise some money for Haiti, so we decided to make bracelets and sell them. I'm going to try and make a fb page for it later on tonight if I can, so all the info will be there :D
We do have a bunch of members that are out of NJ, and after June, we'll have a lot more because most of us are seniors lol so you won't be the only one not from Bloomfield. :]
A good way to get involved is to make things for hospitals in your own area. If you know how to crochet, knit, sew, weave, etc, you can make all sorts of cool stuff! :D Also look around and see if anyone in your school is interested in helping you. Even if there's only a few of you, it's a lot more fun than being by yourself. :]
Thanks for your interested! Keep in touch, email me at cello_chik_27@yahoo.com, and let me know what's up! :D
-Ari :]
I think this was a fantastic ideana nd project.
cute outfits:)
mee 2
Thank you!!! :] We are currently trying to do a bunch of new projects and really keep up with our cause, so if you have any suggestions, we'd love to hear them!!
www.handmade4hospitals.webs.com :]
Thanks,
-Ari
how do i get involved?