Story 5

COORDINATOR'S CORNER
A New Millennium of Giving

It's hard to believe that Craft Yarn Council of America has been sponsoring Warm Up America! for five years. Each year has brought us in touch with some of the most caring people in America, but circumstances last year brought Warm Up America! a lot closer to home base in NC.

As many of you are probably aware, North Carolina communities were devastated by the worst flooding in our state's history, followed by debilitating snow and ice storms this winter. Thousands of families were left homeless. Thanks to Sammy Richardson, husband of former WUA! Coordinator Deborah Richardson, we were able to deliver hundreds of Warm Up America! afghans to Low Country families.

Sammy approached a local moving company and got them to loan him a van to transport the afghans. Not knowing if roads would be open, he set off with all the boxes of afghans we had on hand. Fifteen hours later (the trip to the coast would normally take four hours) he reached the American Red Cross drop-off in the town of Wilmington, NC.

Warm Up America! stories like this one are repeated many more times around the country every year and we are delighted again to share many of them with you. Join us as we travel around the country to meet our family of volunteers Warming Up America!

On a personal note, meeting hundreds of volunteers every year has special meaning for me. From all the wonderful attendees at the Crochet Guild of America Chain Link Conference, who each year make a presentation of Warm Up America! afghans and always spend time joining squares while at the conference, to volunteers like Verna Cranston from Linden, MI, who along with her husband, stops by Council offices every spring to drop off afghans on their way home from the Clearwater, FL, area. This April, Verna dropped off 1 adult and 14 baby afghans. And to many of our neighbors we have gotten to know better as a result of the program.

For instance, there's Tina Kensinger and the Warm Up America! volunteers from Cedar Grove Baptist Church in Maiden, NC, who make regular visits to the office to pick up as many bags of sections as their van can carry and later return assembled afghans. Their support and encouragement has kept us motivated, as do your letters and cards.

To every volunteer, whether you have made one section or 20, to the people who support the program through yarn contributions, and to all those who join sections into afghans, thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

-- Pat Martin, Program Coordinator

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