Thank you to the Student Council at Cherrington Elementary School, Westerville, for making 17 blankets to give to children living in foster care!   Click the images below to see larger photos.  ​

Almost 5,000 children in foster care will receive handmade blankets thanks to members of Ohio Rotary Clubs. 

Members of Ohio’s five Rotary districts provided blankets for 4,966 children in foster care in this year’s All-Ohio PETS Competition. Districts competed to provide the most blankets per capita based on District membership numbers.

​District 6690, which includes central and southeast Ohio, came out on top. We are very grateful to the hundreds of Rotary Blanket Angels who made it possible for MVOB to provide comfort and love to so many children in foster care in Ohio.

​PHOTO ABOVE:  District 6690 Governor Price Finley holds the custom blanket tags MVOB prepared for the 2022 All-Ohio PETS Competition.

​Members of the Circleville Noon Rotary Club hold blankets they made during the competition. They will be donated to Pickaway County CASA, Court Appointed Special Advocates, volunteers who represent children who have experienced abuse or neglect. 

MVOB blankets are now making a difference in the lives of foster care alumni at the Emerge Emancipation Program in Xenia, Ohio. Emerge is a unique non-profit organization dedicated to helping young men and women leaving foster care.
 
The aim of the Emerge program is to help these youth take the right steps and make the right decisions and help them gain the skills necessary to make a safe and lasting transition into society and become self-sustaining, responsible citizens and community members.
 
Emerge provides a place where emancipated foster youth can reach their full potential through vocational training, life skills enrichment, and wrap-around services that include temporary housing at the Emerge Recovery & Trade Initiative, a non-profit that runs the trade school.
 
That’s where your blankets come in!  Each student will have a room of their own, and they can choose a blanket of their very own to add a personal touch to their bed and to keep as they start the next stage of their life.
 
Blanket Angels who live in the Xenia area can drop off blankets (only single bed size, please) at Emerge, 2960 W. Enon Rd., Xenia. Contact: Doris Edelmann, 937-572-7632.

Learn more about Emerge Emancipation Program

MVOB recently received a one by one grant from 4imprint that enabled us to order branded tote bags that we can give as thank you gifts to volunteers.  The company included this story  featuring My Very Own Blanket on their website. 

That scenario is how many children enter foster care. Volunteers for My Very Own Blanket are dedicated to comforting children like Joey with a handmade blanket. And with tote bag giveaways, founder and CEO Jessica Rudolph can thank volunteers for the care and love they provide.

One blanket, lasting comfort
Often, children in foster care feel they’re not lovable or they’ve done something wrong. When these children receive a handmade blanket, it’s something tangible they can hang on to that provides a sense of security and belonging, especially because so many of them have very few things to call their own.     MORE