Warm Up America!

Why charity crochet?

 When I started crocheting, I only made things for me and my close friends and family. I quickly realized that they did not need as much stuff as I wanted to be making. Thus began my hunt for charities to send my donations too. It became very important to me to use my talents to help those in need. I knew that I could make a difference with just a couple hats and scarves, I just needed a place for them to go. In January 2019, I found the wonderful organization Warm Up America, and I have been sending them donations ever since.

What is Warm Up America?

Warm Up America is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1992 by Evie Rosen that is now based out of Texas. The group is

committed to motivating, training and coordinating volunteers to knit and crochet afghans and clothing for people in need.

To this end the foundation "Promotes, trains and encourages individual volunteers and groups to adopt the WUA! program as a local activity, supports and assists these local volunteers by providing information and instructional materials through its website and newsletters, and acts as a collection point for sections, oversees assembly into completed blankets and ships items to various charitable organizations and agencies for distribution to the homeless and persons in need."

 Over the years they have collected over a million afghans and clothing items from over 20,000 volunteer knitters and crocheters across the country (and even around the world)! If you are interested in all the amazing details please check out both their website and their Facebook page. They do live unboxing almost every Tuesday at noon. They give updates on different campaigns, unbox donations from volunteers, and just in general have lots of fun! Sarah and April are a blast to watch!

One of the main collection items they take are sections. These sections are 7 by 9 inch rectangles that can be made from almost any acrylic yarn and with any stitch! The standard approach is to use worsted weight yarn, but DK weight yarn works nicely as well. Lots of makers even use scraps leftover from other projects to complete the sections and these sections are some of my favorites. I personally really enjoy trying new stitches and patterns for these sections. I plan on adding new pattern sections to this blog on a regular basis, which is why I am hosting a Section-A-Long! (see below for details)

 

My set of coordinating sections

One of my favorite parts of this organization is their Makers group on Facebook. It has been such a supportive and inspirational group to be a part of, and I am super grateful for their encouragement for all that I do. If you are interested in seeing what the group is all about, go check out the page! 

What can you do?

WUA always accepts hats, gloves, scarves, blankets and section. Actually, they pride themselves on finding homes/uses for every yarn item that is sent their way, which I think is amazing. I love that no matter what I send in, even if it isn't perfect, it will get used somehow. In addition to these things, WUA usually has several campaigns happening. Some campaigns are pretty much year-round, some happen every year at specific times, and others are more limited. I wanted to spotlight a few that I have sent items for and some that I hope to send to in the future. You can send in items specifically for a campaign, or you can let them decide where it should go.

Sections for Veterans:

This last fall, a local volunteer (in the Dallas area) asked for red, white and blue sections to make blankets for the Veterans Resource Center in Dallas. This campaign was supposed to end at the end of October. However, it had such a good response, that they decided to keep it going. It is now one of their year-round/ongoing campaigns. They are reaching out to other volunteers and veterans centers and hospitals across the country to send them red, white and blue blankets. If helping veterans holds a special place in your heart and you decide to join my Section-A-Long, just use red, white, and/or blue yarn and send them in for this campaign!

Tiny Hats for Tiny Babies:

This is one of their campaigns that happens every year. WUA partners with the American Association of Pediatrics and the University of California at San Francisco to collect hats for premature babies. These hats are taken by healthcare providers to women in low and middle income countries and serve as a way to help open the door for conversations about caring for babies. And of course it helps keep the babies warm, which helps save the lives of these tiny babies.  The campaign as a whole as collected over 30,000 hats since 2017 (and this doesn't include all of the 2019 numbers!)  I made a few in the Fall of 2019 to send in and I couldn't believe how small they were. A packet is put out every year with all the necessary information, and you can find that and more at their website. They even provide knit and crochet patterns and yarn suggestions if you are interested in making.

When I say tiny hats, I do really mean tiny!

Made With Love:

Every winter, WUA volunteers all over the U.S. hang hats, scarves and gloves/mittens from trees and fences in homeless neighborhoods with a tag that says “Take Me, I’m Yours”. The big event is in Dallas, where the WUA office is located, and is held in January. Other volunteers in other parts of the country also hold similar events, with some in the colder states happening earlier in the winter. WUA with the help of sponsors will host mini challenges as a part of this campaign. In 2019 they held two different ones. The first was in May and FaveCrafts hosted a mitten challenge. (This particular challenge convinced me to make my first pair of mittens ever, and I won one of the prizes at the end too!) The second was hosted by Brittany from b.hooked.com. For this challenge she wrote patterns for a hat and glove set, both of which were required to count as an entry for the prizes. These challenges are fun and help WUA collect the items they don't get as many of, like gloves and mittens. They collect for this event all year, with a big push in the fall to get as many items as possible.

Build-a-Bed:

The last one I want to point out is the Build-a-Bed campaign. Morehead State University builds beds for children in need in Eastern Kentucky, which provides the children with a place to sleep in their own homes. WUA provides blankets for these beds. This year, Morehead State is requesting 200-300 adult sized blankets (roughly 63” x 49”) for this program. WUA is collecting these blankets through the end of March if you would like to contribute. I have not helped with this campaign in the past, but I hope to get a blanket made this year! If you want more information on the Build-a-Bed program you can check out their website.

Join the Section-A-Long:

My main undertaking for this blog is to regularly post new patterns for sections for WUA. I am hoping people will join together and make some fun sections to donate to this organization to help them keep people warm across the country. My plan is to post a new pattern every week or two throughout the year. Check out the main Section-A-Long page, and please join in! You can do one section or just drop in when you have the time (or scrap yarn!)!