Hey all you knitters, crocheters and weavers out there. The scarves have gotten to the students and they LOVE THEM!!!!!

We have already gotten lots of thank you emails from the students. But one was especially sweet because the young woman actually wanted to personally thank the person who knitted her scarf. At first I thought to myself, “How in blazes am I going to figure out exactly who knitted one of the thousands of scarves we received and sent in the care packages?” I mean really? REALLY!

But her wish was so darn sincere. Then she tells me it was knitted by “Margaret in British Columbia, Canada”! It was like a one in a million shot – right? OK, so not such large odds but still. I quickly pulled up the scarf donor sheet and as luck would have it there was only one Margaret in all of British Columbia. Well, only one in my database that sent in a scarf (and she actually sent in two scarves and gift cards – GO Margaret!).

So I wrote back to the student and told her to email me her personal thank you to “Margaret in British Columbia” and I would make sure it got to her. This is what she wrote:

Dear Margaret,

Yours Truly,
Chelsey S.

So, I sent the thank you to Margaret and she sent me an email today with the loveliest reply.

Dear Lynn,

Sincerely,
Margaret

I wish that we could match every scarf recipient with its donor. But since we can’t, I hope that you all can feel like this thank you is for you too! Chelsey said, “You must be a very sweet lady to do something for someone who lives so far from you that you don’t even know. Thank you.” That sentiment is true for all of you, except I know that men donate the scarves too. You donate your time and talents to produce some of the most beautiful scarves and send them to us and never really know exactly who they go to. So, from Chelsey, OFA and the thousands of foster youth striving to get an education and make a better life for themselves, we all say THANK YOU!

Photo by Gale Zucker Photography www.gzucker.com

Next time you see a FedEx truck, think of OFA, smile and wave at the driver. He won’t know why you’re being so friendly but it will surely make him smile too.

FedEx is a longtime, generous sponsor of OFA’s Care Package Program. Every year they ship over 7500 packages to OFA students all across the country, and that makes our students smile!

But it’s their corporate culture that I think should be noted – the job done well and with pleasure. Not only do they ship the boxes they’ve supplied with preprinted labels they prepared for us, but our corporate contact calls US to ask when we’d like to send them out. 30 plus inches of snow? No problem, they still prioritized our pick up and delivery, No loading dock at the building to pick up 2500 boxes? FedEx did it by hand.

I once thanked our pickup driver, Bill Triggs, and he just looked at me sort of puzzled and said, “That’s our job.” It had taken nearly two hours for him to get the boxes from the storage room, out to the hall, onto the cart, wheeled through the lobby and into the truck. The volunteers stuffing boxes were so impressed that he did it all with humor and style!

Once again, care packages are on their merry way to the wonderful students in our programs. They will tear open the boxes and marvel at the beauty of the hand-made scarf they receive. They will delight at all the other goodies and school supplies stuffed in the FedEx box, but few to none of them will have a clue about the amount of work, heart and caring that went into each and every package.

At our last Capitol Hill Care Package event, David Pryor Jr., then Senior Federal Affairs Representative of FedEx actually thanked OFA for allowing FedEx to be a Care Package sponsor. He recognized the other sponsors for the items they donated to go into the care packages. He closed his remarks with a very moving statement to the effect that, “At the end of the day, we are just a box. It’s what goes into the box that shows how much people care about these kids.”

WOW – FedEx is so much more than a just a box! Without their generous donation of the shipping, we could not send care packages to our students. Bottom line, without FedEX we couldn’t tell these young people that people are thinking about them and that their education hopes and dreams count.

So, from all of us, THANK YOU FedEX!

Signed, Lynn Davis
OFA Community Partnerships Manager

Yesterday I had the most delightful day being entertained by Cheryl (you rock the interpretations at Mount Vernon, Cheryl!), chauffeured around by Tracey (thank you, Tracey!), and regaled with hilarity as usual by Lynn from OFA. We all went to Mount Vernon, where Cheryl works, to have a fun tour, a grand luncheon, and take a few photos of red scarves.

It was pretty brisk out there, but that didn’t stop us from having a great time. I took responsibility (I have broad shoulders) for bringing the frigid northern temps with me, but the sky was blue and the setting was gorgeous and educational and the company was wonderful. Oh, that Lynn and I, we are a dangerous duo — and I rather think that our superpowers were enhanced by Cheryl and Tracey — making us a rather formidable foursome.

Cheryl M, Norma M, and Tracey F

Cheryl was strong-armed by one of her fellow interpreters to take over his job in the great Mount Vernon main dining room, so we were privileged to see her deliver a little of her stuff. She is delightful, as was the whole of the tour. We weren’t allowed to take photos inside the main house, but we managed to lay out our scarves and shoo people out of the background so we could take photos. Cheryl once again saved the day and very diplomatically asked people to move — blaming it on “that lady” (me) who is “artistic and difficult to work with.” What a blast. I had the best day!

~Norma
www.nownorma.com

This week we got a great letter addressed to: “The Caring Individuals at the Red Scarf Project”. It was from Abigail Miller and enclosed was a $50 check to honor her mother on her birthday. On July 18th, her mom turns 50 and she told us: “Please accept my gift of $50 to honor my mother on her 50th birthday. I know that a donation to her cause will bring her far more pleasure than a pair of earrings.”

Many of you probably have never heard of “Now Norma Knits”, but to those of you in the knitting world, you know that she’s an unsung hero to thousands of former foster youth across the country. Norma and a nationwide band of knitters, knit red scarves for aged out foster youth and OFA includes them in the more than 2,500 care packages we send out three times a year. It’s a hand made scarf, made from the heart and sent with love to youth who have no families of their own. They’re made by grandmothers, mothers, daughters, sisters and regular people, just like Norma who care enough to knit scarves and fund the Red Scarf for Foster Youth Fund.

The RED SCARF FUND FOR FOSTER YOUTH provides emergency aid because life happens and foster youth don’t have the safety net most people call ‘family.’

Red Scarf aid has paid for:

· medical bills

· eyeglasses

· musical instrument repairs

· new tires to pass inspection

· and sadly, funeral expenses

All the things a traditional scholarship fund doesn’t cover, all the things a parent would – our young people count on the Red Scarf Fund to help them. Will you join us in wishing Norma a happy 50h birthday and fund the Red Scarf Fund for Foster Youth in memory of someone you love?

Learn more here.