Students and members of the WSU community will be able to give back to children in need on Thursday, April 5 between 12 p.m. and 7 p.m. thanks to Project Linus.
“Project Linus is a national nonprofit organization that makes blankets for children in need. That could be children in shelters, social service agencies or any child that is in need of a big hug basically,” Ryan Oates, VP of the National Residence Hall Honorary (NRHH) service committee, said.
The Project Linus blanket making marathon began at Wright State about 15 years ago, and according to Oates it has been an on and off tradition. “We’ve worked to keep the contribution to the community going. We had, I think 250 people attend last year,” he shared.
Oates and other members of the NRHH began their journey this past fall semester by sending funding requests to places like the Student Government Association, and then calling Joann Fabrics to prepare for the event. They raised approximately $5,000, according to Oates.
“We went the day after Black Friday and bought like $3,000 worth of fabric. We went back again President’s Day weekend and purchased more fabric, the next part of our journey was getting it all cut,” he said.
Because Oates is also a Resident Assistant in housing, he decided to have a cutting contest on his dorm’s floor, gifting the winning group a Wendy’s gift card. A second cutting event called Loving Linus allowed NRHH to get more blankets cut in preparation for Project Linus.
“We work with the local chapter of Project Linus and we give the blankets to them and they have relationships with different shelters and social service agencies. When you get there, we will have a huge pile of blankets that have already been cut, so basically we just ask that people help tie off a blanket,” Oates said.
There will be over 500 blankets in the Student Union Atrium, each one taking about 15 minutes for an individual to finish off. Oates said the event was made possible with help from Greek Life, Student Government Association, University Activities Board, the Community Council on campus as well as Habitat for Humanity and many more.
“It’s just a way to get to know the people in the community and do something nice to give comfort to a child in need and show them that we really value them. We really appreciate all of the help that we get from all of the different student organizations and individuals because it takes a lot of work to make this event happen. It’s really nice to get to work with so many amazing people,” Oates said.
