Members of Meeting Planners International from Ohio and Kentucky made 200 fleece blankets at a recent educational conference in Cincinnati. The project was organized by Peggy, a conference participant who is the Chicago-based Midwest Sales Director for a West Palm Beach, FL tourism company.

Peggy learned about MVOB through an event held in West Palm Beach that included a blanket-making project. The experience inspired her to become an MVOB advocate.

At the Cincinnati event, Peggy hosted an exhibit booth where attendees learned about MVOB and made blankets. To make it happen, she connected with three local Blanket Angels who picked up the fleece in Westerville and delivered it in Cincinnati, ​collected the finished blankets after the event, and donated them in Cincinnati.

Peggy will take the leftover fleece to an industry event in Chicago where new blanket angels will make blankets that she will donate in Chicago, extending MVOB's mission even farther, to more children in foster care.

We are blessed to have another partner in our mission to provide love and hope to children in foster care. Stitched Together, a family-run organization serving Central Ohio, was created to meet a need for kids entering the foster care system and give them a little hope during an uncertain time in their life.

Stitched Together wants to provide every kid entering foster care with their own Hope Case and something to call their own.
 
Hope Cases are backpacks filled with comfort items as well as essential items for children entering the foster care system. Hope cases ease their transition with something to call their own. Each Hope Case is packed with items specific to a certain age group.

Jillian Gregory, our new Blanket Angel Coordinator (BAC) in Rising Sun, Indiana, is taking her role seriously! 

First, she has organized the members of her quilting group to sew blankets for MVOB. Jillian donates the blankets to three local CASA volunteers (Court Appointed Special Advocates) and Child Service Agencies.

So far, her enthusiastic quilt group has donated more than 45 blankets, and they're still sewing. We were thrilled when Jillian, a CASA volunteer herself, shared with us, "I personally have 7 CASA kiddos and made them blankets. I am so blessed to have found your organization. What a dream come true."

​In addition to quilters, Jillian is working with volunteers who want to make blankets but don't sew or knit. "My CASA organization is always getting groups such as cheerleaders, basketball teams and churches wanting to help our foster kids," she said. "No-sew" fleece blankets are perfect for these blanket angels to make. One of these groups is pictured above.

Another arm of Jillian's BAC work takes place at the Madison Women's Prison, where she has begun weekly quilting classes for 15 of the women. Jillian told us, "I'm having so much fun...The woman are working on quilts for MVOB...They are really cranking them out and having a great time...The ladies that are incarcerated are moved when I talk about CASA and all the children in foster care. Most have been in the system themselves and talk about their experiences. The thought of making quilts for other children has been inspirational for them."  

There is another group of eight ladies at the prison who are crocheting blankets for MVOB. "Their daily job at the prison is to crochet. They are crocheting blankets for me and it is amazing," Jillian added. 

Thanks to Jillian and the other Blanket Angel Coordinators around the U.S., children in foster care far from Central Ohio will be comforted with handmade blankets, each with a special MVOB label attached so that each child can put their name on "their very own blanket." 

​For information about helping MVOB in YOUR area, check out our Blanket Angel Coordinator webpage

We are celebrating! As we opened the workshop on Friday, December 6, our blanket count was 19,869, SO close to our 20,000 goal.
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We were excited to see several blanket angels arrive with donations, and the total started to climb as they pushed the blue blanket counter button. 

Many, many thanks to all of our supporters, all over Ohio and in 16 other states, for your faithful efforts that allowed us to reach this ambitious goal.  We are blessed by your support.  

​Last Spring, Tina Green and her colleague Shelly, Montgomery County WWK (Wendy’s Wonderful Kids) recruiters, visited our Blanket Workshop to pick out some of the larger blankets for the youth in foster care attending Camp Joy, the WWK summer camp for young people aged 12 - 17.
(Original story:  https://www.myveryownblanket.org/news/archives/04-2019)

Tina recently sent us this email that we want to share with you:  
Here are some photos of our youth enjoying the blankets during movie night!
We took pictures of our youth with the blankets they received. They loved them so much and slept with them at night.  

​Thirty-four people from Nationwide’s Property & Casualty Compliance team in five locations in Des Moines, Iowa; Scottsdale, Arizona; Brea, California; and San Antonio, Texas participated in this year’s Day of Caring. 

After the Day of Caring was over, we were glad to hear and receive the photos above  from Nationwide's Gretchen Collins, one of the day's organizers: 
"Each year the Nationwide team works to coordinate volunteer experiences for each location. It’s hard to coordinate across multiple locations, but your process made it very easy.  From blanket pickup, instruction sheets, cutting templates, and name tags, this was a smooth experience. Thank you for caring for some of the most vulnerable in our society!"

Many thanks to the Nationwide team for providing handmade blankets for children in foster care in Iowa, Arizona, California and Texas. We are thrilled that, through an expanding network of volunteers,  My Very Own Blanket can help provide love and comfort to children in foster care in places far from Central Ohio!