A police officer walks past an apartment complex destroyed in the wildfire in the Abasands neighbourhood in Fort McMurray, Alta., on Monday, May 9, 2016. (Ryan Remiorz / THE CANADIAN PRESS)
You may remember the devastating fires that ran through Fort McMurray and surrounding areas in Alberta this past May. Thousands of people lost everything when their homes burned down. This disaster sparked the quickest and largest fundraising Canada has ever seen. But as in many other situations, the need is greater than the funding, and the funding dries up once the news coverage slows down. One thing I know about knitters is that they are a generous bunch. And one thing I know about Fort McMurray is that it gets cold!
I have an update on a project I wanted to put together this May when many of us were feeling helpless as we watched the news. Inspired by the success of the 25,000 Toques, 1000 Stitches for Syria, and the Knitted Knockers campaigns, I wanted to see if we could take advantage of the time over the summer to knit small items and do some good at the same time. Things were moving very slowly until last week, thanks to my good friend Christine, we secured distribution of our knitted items through the United Way in Fort McMurray. We don’t yet have all the details about which office of the agency will be coordinating fulfilment, but it’s time to start knitting.
Our deadline is the end of September to send items out to Alberta so they can be distributed at the beginning of October. They have asked us to put an emphasis on school age child and youth items (except for child mittens) as the easiest distribution channel for them is through schools. With so many families displaced, they are happy to receive any size items we make. I know some people have already made children’s mittens and that is fine, we will send them. However, they do prefer to purchase waterproof handwear for the kids.
Yarns Untangled has graciously agreed to act as a drop off point for those of you in Toronto. While you are there, check out their great yarns – they have some great Canadian Content! There will be donation tags available at the drop off box if you forgot or don’t have access to a printer.
Basic parameters:
– new items only
– place item in a clean ziploc bag
– fill out the donation tag – available here to download
For those of you not in the GTA who do want to help, I will update this post and update social media as soon as I have an address for the United Way office and you can send items there directly. If you are unable to knit or crochet an item or a few items, you can still help by sharing this post with any friends or organizations you think might want to help. I will also be posting on Instagram (@ramonafirehorse) if that is an easier way for you to share. Please feel free to reach me through the Contact Me page on this site if you have any questions.
If any of you are looking for pattern ideas, there are plenty of free hat, mitten and cowl/scarf patterns on Ravelry for various weights of yarn. Some of us have been able to do some stash busting and use up leftovers for this projects. I can highly recommend the tincanknits patterns which are conveniently sized from Baby to Adult. The popular Barley hat is a great free pattern. You can tag your projects with “fortmac” on Ravelry so others will be able to see what patterns people are using. And please leave other pattern ideas in the comments below so we can all find some quick and easy projects.
Thank you so much to everyone who has been supporting this endeavour and to all of you who will be stepping up to help as well.
The Canadian Press,RCMP Alberta Twitter
An RCMP officer surveys the damage on a street in Fort McMurray, Alta.
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