Marcus Fabrics - Fun and Features, Charity Events

As quilters, sewers and crafters, we are known for being generous with our time and talents. Whether you're looking for a worthy cause that would appreciate your talents, or your organization has a community project to share with others, Marcus Fabrics supports the efforts of creative stitchers everywhere!

The HeartStrings Quilt Project is an online group of quilters who have joined together to make and donate String Quilts to local charitable organizations. Group member Mary Johnson explains, "We support each other with encouragement and inspiration as we work on our own string quilt projects and we contribute to group quilts through donating blocks, assembling and quilting tops. All the details of the project are available on our website, while the group's blog shares current progress."

Project C.A.M.P. (Children are Magnificent People) is a not-for-profit medical camping facility, scheduled to open in 2008 in Scottsville, KY. It will benefit seriously ill children ages 7 through 15, at NO COST to the child or the family. Based on the concept from Paul Newman's Hole In The Wall Camps, the dream for Camp Courageous began when its Founder, Elizabeth Turner Campbell, visited a Newman Camp in Central Florida. Each bed will be adorned with a twin size quilt (65" x 90'). The facility will need 300 quilts upon opening, and a steady supply thereafter, as an estimated 4,000+ children and family members will visit annually. Project C.A.M.P. is being planned as a stellar facility, unparalleled or unequaled in this part of the country. Please visit www.courageouskids.org. We're anxious to welcome the bravest children we know. Your support in this endeavor will be appreciated SEW much. For more information, contact Stormi Norman, VP of Communications.

Binky Patrol is a national organization that provides quilts to children in need of comfort due to illness, emotional trauma, or economic hardship. Visit www.binkypatrol.org. (Submitted by Kathy Gumbleton, local area coordinator for the Pasadena, CA chapter of this national organization.)

Marcus Fabrics Contributes to the
Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

In keeping with our practice of giving back to the community, Marcus Fabrics has donated a percentage of sales from our pink ribbon fabrics to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Based in New York City, the not-for-profit organization strives to achieve prevention and a cure for breast cancer on our lifetime, by providing critical funding for innovative clinical and genetic research worldwide. It also works to increase public awareness about breast health. To make a donation, and learn more about the Foundation, visit www.bcrfcure.org

The Sunshine Quilt Guild, an online guild with members worldwide, makes quilts for Wrap Them In Love (quilts to orphanages overseas) and Wrap-a-Smile (an extension of Rotoplast, sending quilts with doctors who perform cleft lip/palate surgeries overseas), reports Janet Gray, a member from Wisconsin. Visit http://sunshinequilts.hypermart.net

Barbara O’Neill started her “To The Top” project in October 2003, after losing her son in combat in Afghanistan. Her group has delivered over 100 quilts to veterans who live in state/federal subsidized residences across Mass. and NH, and welcomes new members to join in their efforts. Contact Barbara: Cindergirl911@aol.com.

Operation Kid Comfort is a national project of the YMCA that creates quilts for the emotional comfort of children of deployed US servicemen and women.

Quilts for Kids was founded in August 2000 to transform discontinued designer fabrics into quilts that comfort children with cancer, AIDS and other life-threatening illnesses, as well as battered and abused children. Contact Linda Arye.

Care Wear Volunteers is a nonprofit organization of volunteers nationwide that provides handmade apparel, blankets, toys, and burial garments to infants and families in need. Contact Bonnie Hagerman.

The KIA Memorial Quilt Project is an online network of quilters making quilt blocks and complete quilts for each of the servicemen and women that have been killed during Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. They are also making neck coolies to send to the Troops. Contact Rochelle Baisch through the KIA Memorial Quilt website.

Newborns in Need

Project Linus - Providing Security Through Blankets.

ABC Quilts - A national charity providing love and comfort through quilts to at-risk children afflicted with HIV, fetal alcohol or drug conditions, or that are abandoned. ABC also provides prevention education materials for educators and youth leaders in a program called Kids Making Quilts for Kids. Visit www.abcquilts.org on the Internet.

The Home Sewing Association lists other volunteer sewing opportunities.

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