The end of the year approaches and snow is - finally! - beginning to appear, decorations are going up, family schedules are being scanned to find out when all can gather, the weather is (or will be) colder, and Winnipeg will continue to welcome newcomers now and in 2017.
Possibly your thoughts are turning to holiday gifting, along with social justice? Perhaps you do a gift exchange at work, or at your book club, a sports team, or a walking group? Maybe your family or friends do "Secret Santa"?
If you are looking for a win-win-win, totally-easy social justice gift, perhaps this option can help get you started on this annual ritual of sharing and remembrance, or enable you to complete your list if you are one of those quick-off-the-mark people.
Warm Up to Winnipeg (WUW) provides donated knitted scarves to newly arrived refugees who are unprepared for our cold climate. Here's how it works: you give me $5 (child) or $10 (adult), and a scarf is donated in your (or your giftee's) name. If you are honouring someone else, we even have a card, which explains WUW, for you to give to that person.
We now have distributed about 2500 scarves, and sent over $18,000 to the Stephen Lewis Foundation to support African grandmothers caring for their AIDS-orphaned grandchildren. This little project just keeps chugging along, with the support of the many knitters and the generosity of people like you.
Let me know if you are interested, and I will arrange the details for your donation.
Many thanks!
