Fleece on Earth, Good Wool to All

Photos are courtesy of Paula (Prairie Piper on Ravelry) whose blog can be found at http://www.apiperknits.blogspot.com/

Teddies for Tragedies
At a recent Friday Night Knitting Night, we had two visitors who talked to us about Teddies for Tragedies. Olga and her mom, Jarry, were busy making simple-to-knit bears for an orphanage in Rwanda. This is an ongoing project involving several people from London, ON who regularly travel to Rwanda.

My 23-year-old son, Andy, just returned from eleven months of teaching and travelling in Rwanda. He noticed how few middle aged and older people there were in this country. Several of the children in his classes were orphaned, either by the genocide or by health issues. These kids spent their vacations at the school doing things like digging with hoes in the yard to make a basketball court.

For orphans, life on their own, with lots of responsibilites, nothing or no one to call their own is just something that they are used to do. That's life ...just get on with it. I can imagine how special the gift of a simple cuddly toy would feel to one of these children. Some local doctors say that it does as much or more good than medicine.

If you are interested in knitting a bear, or more, please check out the website: http://www.teddiesfortragedies.org/

You can drop off your teddy donations at Little Red Mitten and we'll make sure that they get to the right people. There doesn't seem to be a time limit, at this point, but we'll let you know if we hear news of a departure date.

Fleece Navidad,
Joan