My Busy Fall: Bitty Buildings, Blessing Bags, And Blanket Drops Are Back In Action!

So this fall and winter I spent a lot of time collecting up fleece (I’d gone through my stash) and making a BUNCH of blankets!! I also made some bags of supplies that shelters can use to give to people who come in and might need to take things with them like snacks, shampoo, and things like that (it doesn’t all have to be blankets!). I had the opportunity to help the St. Louis Friends of Wings organization at their “Raise The Roof” event where they auction off awesome playhouses to make money they use to help kids who are in hospice from cancer.

I’ve been busy.

Here I am making blessing bags. I loaded them up with things like socks, snacks, toothpaste, combs, and other things a person who is having a hard time might need.

After I loaded up all the bags we took them downtown to the St. Patrick Center. The St. Patrick Center serves people of all ages, including kids, who are struggling or homeless.

Next, here are some pictures of me at Friends Of Wings’ Raise The Roof party. I helped them “lasso” people who had to go ride the mechanical bull because someone had made a donation to raise money for kids in hospice from cancer.

They were also auctioning off little playhouses that were all decorated differently by different companies all around St. Louis. I loved how they all looked different and it would be so cool to be a lucky winner of one of them!

I was also so honored this fall to be invited to speak at a Board of Aldermen meeting for my local hometown. I gave a presentation about all the great things about our area and how pageantry has been a huge positive in my life and helped me get out the word to so many people about Abbie’s Helping Hands.

That is me with the Mayor of my town. At the end of the meeting, he presented me with a Proclamation in my honor! It was very exciting.

Finally, BLANKETS! I had been collecting a lot of donations from friends and my family to build back up my supplies in early fall. What looks like a lot of fleece actually gets used up fast when you are making big With all my supplies, I was able to make blankets for a lot of groups. Here are some stacks of them and pictures of me with my brother when we were making some.

Right after Christmas I learned my friend Alannah is starting to make little blankets for babies in the NICU out of fleece scraps. I have promised her I will save all my scraps and give them to her! I am so happy that absolutely none of those little pieces will go to waste.

My first batch of blankets, were lap-sized for people in wheelchairs or littler babies. They went to HIS Kids, a group that helps kids with cancer. They are going to auction them off at their first fundraiser this year to make money for the kids’ families.

My next batch of blankets, some big ones and some medium ones, went to the Ronald McDonald House. It makes me very happy to think of kids in treatment at Mercy Hospital getting to use them when they are staying there away from home. Or, their families can use them too at the house. They still had their Christmas decorations up when I delivered them and the house was so cozy and welcoming.

My next blanket is being donated to our local chapter of the Smile Train for them to auction off at their annual Trivia Night. The Smile Train brings doctors to areas of the world where kids do not have easy access or money for operations to fix a cleft lip or cleft palate. This is a birth defect in kids when the roof of their mouth or their top lip did not grow properly. The doctors do surgery to fix the birth defect. You can learn about them at https://www.facebook.com/pages/St-Louis-Families-for-the-Smile-Train/202755903105124.

I still have more blankets to give out and stay tuned here for an update on my last deliveries for the holiday 2015 season.

So, that is what I have been up to the past few months. I hope everyone reading this had a wonderful fall and holiday and I promise to post more very soon!

Love,

Abbie