Providing Security

Through Yarn For Blankets

By Shannon Hicks

Children at the Fraser-Woods School in Newtown were recently asked to participate in a collection that would in turn help children around the world. The young students were asked to donate a skein of yarn.

On April 5, the yarn was collected at the Main Street South school and presented to Cathy Tringhese, a representative from Project Linus. The organization collects and then distributes homemade blankets to seriously ill or traumatized children around the world.

The security blankets are collected by the 325 existing Project Linus chapters in the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, and Mexico, and distributed to children around the globe. Locally, quilts are given to area hospitals and facilities including the Children’s Hospital at Yale-New Haven Hospital, the Hole in the Wall Gang, and Connecticut Burns Camp.

Mrs Tringhese is a coordinator for the volunteer group, which has a chapter in Stratford. She accepted the yarn from the Fraser-Woods students last Thursday morning and will next deliver the yarn to knitters who will then create quilts. A group of 20 women meets every week at Holy Name of Jesus Church in Stratford, creating up to eight quilts during each of its six-hour work sessions.

Pat Iancale, who was also at the Fraser-Woods School Thursday morning, has already started making a number of blankets for Project Linus.

The project was named after the security blanket-toting character Linus from the Peanuts comic strip. Anyone interested in making blankets or donations may call Cathy Tringhese at 203-378-5129.