Many crafters like to donate their creations to charity. What are your favorite charities that you support, and why? Don’t be afraid to toot your own horn!
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Alzheimer center. Because they are happy to receive soft toys for their patients, and it’s near by.
And, not really charity, but when clearing out my house every once in a while, I will take my creations and ‘home clutter’ to the thrift store.
What about you ?
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@Millionbellscrochet Among my favorites to contribute to are Operation Gratitude (I crochet and knit hats and scarves for our deployed military and first responders)… Another favorite of mine is Project Linus. I donate fleece blankets and afghans through my county’s chapter. I also do baby hats for the NICU at a local hospital in the Orlando area, as well as chemo caps, blankets, afghans and shawls at the cancer center, and blankets and afghans for our VA Medical Center and Fisher House.
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@FlamingoStitcher Oh wow, you donate a lot ! I very much respect that. 
I’m sure all charities you donate to are happy to receive your goods.
I hope, besides knitting and crocheting for charity, you will still have time to create nice things fot yourself and/or your loved ones.
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This post warms my heart! 
Thank you for sharing, and for starting this conversation!
I used to volunteer in Barnardo’s (UK charity for children), and I donate most of my makes, since I make a lot of cute toys and dolls for kids.
With working on Ribblr I don’t have so much time to make many things, but I try to at least make a donation every time I go there!
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I’ve got a couple of ladies at my knit group that are apart of church groups that help the community.
I’ve had hats go to help a men’s group and asylum refugees. Blankets for nursing homes, women’s shelter and as fund raising raffle prizes. A few years ago, I made teddies that went to hospitals and ambulance services for kids.
I’ve also had some projects that have been donated to op shops too.
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The Preemie Project has a lot of patterns for infant bereavement. It’s something close to my heart and means a lot to bereaved parents.
When a lost baby can be wrapped up in something beautiful, it reinforces their dignity. It is a hard thing to think about, but beautiful. Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep does remembrance photography. Beautiful knit garments and blankets make it more special, too. 
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@chemengiknitter I also do little hats and blankets for the “angel babies” at the same hospital that I do preemie hats for. There’s a personal connection attached to just about all of the places I donate to. My daughter was a NICU baby… 28 years ago. Both of my parents had cancer (Dad had pancreatic and passed 21 years ago, and my Mum is a 14 year breast cancer survivor… and one of my friends from my church stitching group was a patient at the same facility I donate to… she fought cancer 4 times before she succumbed). The VA, Fisher House and Operation Gratitude are a way to support and give back to my military sisters and brothers (I’m retired US Navy). Project Linus does a lot here in my local community for children in need, and we here in Central Florida support Operation Snowball Express, a function held at Walt Disney World every December, put on by the Gary Sinise Foundation for children who are from Gold Star Families (children who have lost a parent in the line of duty). Every bit of it I have a very personal connection to. This isn’t how I envisioned my retirement to look like, but it’s all good!
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@Millionbellscrochet Everyone in the family has been gifted to infinity and beyond!! I have a few things I have made for myself, but I don’t require much, because I live in Florida! I enjoy the process of having free creative license over what I’m making, and enjoy just giving. When I go to a facility for a delivery day, I go with full totes, but come back home with empty totes and a full heart. And then… I start all over again!
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I find this very inspirational. Thank you so much for sharing!
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@Lir, I believe I have stumbled upon a few of your patterns… so stinkin’ cute!! I just recently started doing amigurumis too!
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That’s so sweet ! 
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Thank you so much!!!
Amigurumi is such a fun technique! Everything is quite structured and usually geometrical…I love it!
@Millionbellscrochet actually makes AMAZING amigurumis! 
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Yes she does!! I saw a few that I will need to be purchasing!! I’ve made a bumblebee and a bunch of octopi so far… getting ready to tackle Nemo from “Finding Nemo”. I found a cute, easy pattern.
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I knit up hats and sometimes mittens through the year to put on mitten trees in our community. The items donated to the trees get distributed throughout the community to those who have need.
I also do a shawl each year to donate to our church’s make, bake, sew, grow auction to help raise funds to send kids to church camp each summer.
I would love to do baby hats for a NICU or something of that nature but when I looked into it many (all) of the local places would only accept acrylic and I don’t use that 
So I keep going with the mitten trees.
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That’s a really lovely idea! A small act of kindness goes a long way. I’m sure the person who gets it is very grateful for what you’ve created for them.
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I make Twiddlemuffs and donate them to memory care facilities. They’re fun to knit, very creative, and an awesome stash buster.
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Mitten trees sounds like a great idea, @Rhonnie! The shawl for auction sounds wonderful! The reason the NICUs and cancer centers accept only acrylic, cotton or bamboo is because 1) wool (in particular) along with a lot of animal fibers is very itchy to a bare scalp… the skin there is SO sensitive… and 2) some people have allergic reactions to animal fibers. Babies haven’t got much of an immune system, and for people going through chemo and radiation, their immune system has been blasted to bits. Any allergic reaction to something could become exponentially WORSE because of that.
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I have a friend who does that for our local Easter Seals. She loves making them!
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