Students and alumni will gather for the third year this Saturday to volunteer their time and come together as a community to make blankets for children in need of them.
Project Linus is an event put on by Cobber SALT (Students and Alumni Linked Together) that will take place on Saturday, Dec. 7th from 10:00am to 12:00am in the Carl B. Ylvisaker library.
Erik Tolkinen, Alumni Awareness Director, and his committee within SALT has the role of informing the student body about all of the great things Concordia alumni do and how they stay engaged with the college. This includes philanthropy events like Project Linus and one of Tolkinen’s favorite events of the year that SALT puts on.
“Project Linus is a great opportunity for Concordia students to celebrate the holidays and give back to the FM community in a fun manor,” Tolkinen said, “It also is a way to work alongside alums and members of the Concordia community. We want the event to be welcoming to alums and families that are in the area for Christmas Concert weekend.”
Project Linus is a nonprofit organization with chapters all over the U.S. They accept handmade blankets at local chapters and deliver them to children in hospitals, shelters, social service agencies or anywhere a child might need one.
According to projectlinus.org, the Project Linus mission is to, “First, provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need through the gifts of new, handmade blankets and afghansm lovingly created by volunteer “blankateers.” Second, provide a rewarding and fun service opportunity for interested individuals and groups in local communities, for the benefit of children.”
The event is organized by a subcommittee led by Cayle Hovland. This year, they decided to change the name to “Christmas Service Project | SALT x Project Linus,” in light of expanding the event and making more blankets than they did last year. They joined with Concordia Love Your Melon and CEC to not only make blankets but cards as well that will be sent out to kids within the Fargo-Moorhead hospital system.
Students can come and help make blankets, enjoy the atmosphere, and have a fun time! We would love to see many people at this event and are very excited to host it again this year,” Hovland said.
Annika Benson, president of SALT always looks forward to this event.
“This is such a fun event, it’s so fun to see like professors come and community members come and bring their kids and hang out with students and really just do like a meaningful service project together,” Benson said.
Last year over 100 students, faculty, alumni and members of the community came together and made 75 blankets that were brought to kids within the Fargo-Moorhead hospitals, but they hope to exceed that number this Saturday.
Benson continues, “I think it really shows the strength of our Cobber community and how you know, how much we want to give back and how important it is to do types of events like this together and it’s so nice to just gather during like the Christmas concert season, you know have coffee together, chat, do a service project and just really spend time with like your fellow Concordia members.”
Students and alumni can help out by being there or you are able to donate fleece at the Alumni Office until the day of the event, Dec. 7th. The fleece should be 1.5-yard increments.
Students, family and friends of all ages are welcome to come and help tie blankets and enjoy the holiday season. Other activities included are card making, pictures with Santa, dog toy making, sugar cookie decorating, a hot chocolate bar, and muffins.
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