YWCA 2 Minute 5 K

4th Annual 2Minute 5KAgain this year we are planning to be at a booth during the YWCA 2 Minute 5 K.

It’s been a neat event for us the past 2 years, we’ve enjoyed meeting survivors and volunteers who distribute the scarves.

If you’re in OKC this weekend, swing on by to say hi, or better yet sign up to walk or run in the race.

Check out the details.

Scarves from afar

It was so exciting to receive over 30 scarves from family members of YWCA staff!

They came from people in Wisconsin and Oklahoma City.

YWCA 1YWCA 2YWCA 3

What a great contribution to this project! It’s so cool that we really can partner with people all over the place.

You don’t have to live right here in Oklahoma to participate. Through various connections and shipping services anyone can join us in offering comfort to survivors!

Let’s try something new

During the first two years that Threads OKC has been happening we’ve gotten a lot of use out of a couple of nice patterns. The variety of colors and textures has been really cool to see as completed scarves have been donated.

For this month, I thought it would fun to select a pattern for us to all work on together. Lion Brand Yarn has a pattern online that looks neat to try. You can find it here. 

I think it will be fun to see finished scarves in the coming months that are made with the same pattern, yet turn out different based on the yarn selection.

We can even share our finished products on the Facebook page so that people who can’t attend the monthly work day can see how it’s going.

2012 Work Days

We have planned work days for the first part of 2012.

Everyone is welcome to join us, whether you are just learning to knit or crochet, or you’re very experienced.

In addition to working on making scarves we also take time to package completed ones.

Here are the dates, please mark you calendar and join us:

January 22

February 12

March 4

April 1

May 6

June 3

We’ll be in room A101 at the Memorial Road church of Christ in Edmond.

A cool opportunity…

We are scheduled to have a booth at a concert tonight on campus at Oklahoma Christian University.

The concert was planned with the hope that it will raise awareness for four campus groups – Rwandans4Water, Wishing Well, Threads of Compassion and OC Modern Abolitionists – as well as two off-campus efforts – Soles for Souls and the YWCA Rape Crisis Center.

The location has been changed to inside the student center.

More information is available in the OC student newspaper.

A new Threads Chapter in CT!

In July I was contacted by a lady in Connecticut. She had questions about starting a Threads of Compassion chapter there.  I shared my experiences with her and hoped it all worked out.

I heard from her recently, they have started a new chapter there!  They have a great website and a facebook page. 

You can check them out at www.threadsnb.org

It so cool to be part of something that continues to grow and offer comfort to people at such difficult times.

Working with Pepperdine’s Step Forward Day

September is Step Forward Day at Pepperdine University.

I’m excited to share that this year the Alumni Organization’s Waves of Service program is joining up again with Step Forward Day to give more people a chance to participate all around the country, and Threads of Compassion OKC is one of the projects.

So all you Waves out there: join us for this day of service. Not in the Oklahoma City area? No problem! We’re a virtual location, so you can join in wherever you are and just let Pepperdine know you’re participating. Once your scarf is done, you can send it to us for distribution.

Visit www.threadsokc.org for more information about how to get involved with Threads of Compassion.

Joining Pepperdine’s Step Forward Day

Next month is Step Forward Day at Pepperdine University.

One of my favorite experiences as a Pepperdine Student was Step Forward Day,it was so fun to join with classmates on service projects around the community. I remember seeing dolphins swimming in the waves as we cleaned up trash at the beach one year.

It’s exciting to share that this year the Alumni Organization’s Waves of Service program is joining up again with Step Forward Day to give more people a chance to participate all around the country, and Threads of Compassion OKC is one of the projects.

More information is available online at http://www.pepperdine.edu/alumni/chapters/stepforward/sfd2011.htm

Thankful for the mail!

It was so cool to come back from vacation to a box of scarves! These beautiful scarves were sent in the mail.

I think it’s great that we have so many ways for people to be involved with Threads of Compassion OKC. Some come to our monthly work days and get to meet others while working together, while others can work at home and just send the scarves. Still others are close enough that they stop by my office with scarves from time to time. This really is a project that has a lot of flexibility!

I’m hopeful that we can continue to provide scarves throughout the summer, as the need continues to go on, even though our schedules may be changing a bit.