Volunteer quilters in Grimsby are helping children by creating superb hand-made quilts – and they’re doing it with support from Freemasons of the town’s Astral Lodge.
The latest batch of quilts created by ladies of the Haven Quilters, who meet at the Pelham Suite in Grimsby’s Cambridge Road, was given to The Tree House, an independent fostering agency which has been providing care for looked-after children for more than 25 years. The organisation recruits, trains, and supports foster carers in Humberside and Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, the East Midlands and the North West.
The Haven Quilters will ‘convert’ the Astral Lodge donation of £250 into more quilts. Every year the ladies work with a Community Interest Company called Project Linus. Its mission ois to provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children who are sick, disabled, disadvantaged, or distressed by donating gifts of new, home-made, washable quilts and blankets made by UK volunteer knitters and quilters.
Project Linus began in America in 1995 when Karen Loucks saw a newspaper article showing how much a comfort blanket had helped a child cancer victim. She decided to organise blankets for her local children’s cancer unit and started spreading the word. Since that time several million blankets and quilts have been delivered worldwide. The organisation began in the UK in March 2000 as a result of a Birmingham quilter’s desire to help children in need. The organisation, now a Community Interest Company, has a large network of volunteers across the UK who donate their time and skills to create beautiful blankets and quilts.
