If you’ve ever seen one of the many Peanuts TV specials, you’ll know Linus, with his ever-clutched security blanket.
Inspired by a story in a US magazine in 1995 about a young girl with cancer clutching her favourite “blankie,” there are now groups around the world distributing blankets to young people in traumatic situations, coordinated by Project Linus. Peanuts creator Charles Shultz gave his permission for use of the name and image, hand-sewn onto every blanket distributed.
Turns out, we have our own local connection. M&S Auto Centre, at 214 McRae Dr., is one of the pickup locations for some 2,000 blankets a year distributed by Diana Delic for Project Linus Canada, whose sons run M&S.
Diana was “really bummed” in 2024, when she “only” collected 2,023 blankets while aiming for 2024. One local Leaside quilter alone has made more than 1,800 blankets over the years and is still contributing regularly. Another volunteer, a 94-year-old in Sutton, “cranks out crocheted blankets like crazy.”
Diana keeps in regular contact with hospitals, children’s cancer and, midwifery centres and bereavement camps for children, and she makes sure blankets go to “a child who needs a little comfort.” She’s “never had to turn down a request from a hospital.”
Blankets can be quilted, knit or crocheted as long as the material is new, handmade and washable (and if yarn, acrylic). Diana, a crocheter, had heard of Project Linus. About 17 years ago, she contacted Project Linus Canada founder Rona Kleiman. The two worked together for several years, with Diana carrying on.
More needleworx for good causes
Leasider Jane Withers, one of the Thursday group doing various “needleworx” at the Leaside Library, regularly collects hand-made items made by members for the Toronto branch of the Needlework Guild of Canada (another registered charity), which distributes items for infants, toddlers, children, teens and adults through frontline social service agencies.
Gerri, another Leasider and Thursday knitter, also contributes bright knit blankets for Project Linus, but hers travel to those in need in Kitchener/Waterloo.
Another Thursday Library needleworker, Brenda Woods, is working on the design for her quilt for Project Linus. The fabric squares themselves also boast a nod to charity – from a sale organized by Fabric Spark on the Danforth, sample squares were sold to fund scholarships for girls in Sub-Saharan Africa through Beautiful World Canada.
In the October 2016 issue of Leaside Life, we wrote about the knitters at Leaside Gate at 955 Millwood Rd. They continue to knit every Wednesday, now under the leadership of Eleanore Wynn and Carol Smiley. The knit six-inch by six-inch squares are then crocheted together – 35 of them – into a small blanket and 70 to make a cover for a single bed. The small blankets are donated to Camp Scugog, with its camping weeks for mothers and inner-city children, or to the Abiona Centre for Infant & Early Mental Health on Broadview Avenue. The single bed size blankets head to the WoodGreen Supportive Housing location on Cedarvale Avenue, also in East York. All handmade, all for worthy causes.
