Homeless Remembrance Blanket Project Newsletter

July 2025 News

#memorialblanket is delighted to announce that we've been invited to bring our massive art display to the Rocky Mountains! We will be joining the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless in their annual “We Will Remember: Homeless Persons’ Memorial Vigil.” 

Cathy Alderman, Chief Communications and Public Policy Officer for the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless said of this year's partnership, “We are incredibly proud to partner with the Homeless Remembrance Blanket Project this year to offer artists from across the world a way to help neighbors and bring national attention to the issue of homelessness in Colorado.”

Pat LaMarche added, “For persons experiencing homelessness and the communities in which they live, all homelessness is local. Sadly, in the United States, there isn’t a location that remains untouched by it. As the Homeless Remembrance Blanket Project grows, we hope to cast light on the tragically universal aspect of housing insecurity and the pain it causes to individuals and families.”

We know you're excited; we're excited too! Wondering how you're going to get your blankets out to Colorado? Keep watching the newsletter for details. We'll have a mailing address, as we always do, and pick-up points along the east coast. We will still collect in downtown Carlisle because this is where it all started. We will have to push those Carlisle Square Santa Shack drop off dates back a little. Instead of dropping off between the 10th and the 20th, it'll be the 5th through the 15th. So what are you waiting for? Let's get busy blanket making!

Following in the time-honored tradition of making blankets together, many of you came out for the annual Blanket in a Day event at Carlisle Summerfair.

A mere week after the summer solstice, the sun was bright, shiny, and HOT! So what prompted so many of you to brave a heat dome to donate time to this effort? Maybe the thought that in a mere six more months, it will be the shortest day of the year, and many unhoused persons will be longing for the warmth of your handiwork.

Does this crochet pattern make sense to you? If it does, we need your blanket making skills! The crafts of sewing, knitting, and crocheting may be in decline, but the needs of the unhoused for a blanket to cover them in the cold, unfortunately, keeps rising. It has been the honor of #memorialblanket to identify each of you with the skills to create beauty from yarn, thread, and cloth and unite your skills with materials that will meet this vital need.

For those of you in the majority who might lack these skills, there is still much you can do to help the cause. Share news of our needs with friends, shops, and clubs which you may know. Better yet, donate some materials to a skilled craftsman to make it easier for them to create. If you don't know anyone personally to whom you can give supplies, contact us at epicjourney10@gmail.com, and we will pair your donated items to creators.