Category: Community
Challenge: Give an environmentally conscious gift
Sponsor: Rainbow Grocery
Action: Turning old t-shirts into quilts for the homeless this Christmas!! :)
Everyday, I walk the streets of downtown Portland and pass several, if not dozens, of homeless men and women. Sometimes I give them my leftover breakfast or lunch. Other times, all I can do is smile, nod, and continue walking. But the fact is: for whatever reason, these people don't have a place to call home. Which to me, is a tragedy.
My project started a couple of months ago while cleaning out my closet at the house I call "home." I found dozens of old t-shirts from my high school volleyball and student government days. T-shirts, that for sentimental reasons, I wasn't able to part with, although I couldn't see myself wearing them again. Buried beneath all the t-shirts was my old sewing machine. A Christmas gift that I once treasured, but was now covered in dust. I grabbed some scissors, began chopping, piecing the t-shirts together, and before I knew it, my first t-shirt quilt was created. I still had dozens of leftover shirts, and thought, "if I have this many, what does everyone else have?" My brother, dad, and friends contributed to the pile, and thus, more t-shirt quilts were born.
When it rains, as it inevitably and often does, Portland is cold. Really cold. And that's coming from someone who grew up in Colorado. If someone doesn't have a place to call "home," the least that I can do is provide them with a little warmth, and hopefully, comfort. I donate each completed quilt to a local homeless shelter, and they distribute them as necessary. The day that I walk down Park Avenue and see a man, woman, or child snuggled up in one of my 'blankeTees,' I'll smile, knowing that someone is a little warmer because of me, and my old t-shirts.
The way I see it, no matter how "bad" of a day I think that I'm having, or how "terrible" a situation may be for me, I can guarantee you that on any given day, someone else has it worse off. And I know that I can't save the world. Not single-handedly, at least. But, like the old starfish story, if I can make even one person's day a little brighter, I've done something. And to me, that's everything.
For more information, please visit: http://blog.lauragrieser.com/ and click on the "Project BlankeTee" tab.
"Be nice to everyone you meet, for they're fighting battles you know nothing about."
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