Pine Street Inn Knitathon Is Nov. 8

Prizes, guest speakers, food and fun are promised for the 2009 Pine Street Inn Knit-a-Thon.

The Knit-a-Thon raises money to benefit Pine Street Inn’s Supportive Housing Program, which provides permanent housing for formerly homeless people. And the blankets made during the Knit-a-Thon are given to residents of the program.

The way it works: Before the event, participants knit or crochet up as many 9” squares as possible. On the day of the event, the squares are sewn together into afghans. You can help by:

• knitting or crocheting squares,
  
• raising money,
  
• making a donation, and/or
  
• showing up on Nov. 8 to help sew squares into afghans.

Last year 40 blankets were made and nearly $20,000 was raised.

Pine Street Inn makes it easy to create your own fundraising web page (through the site FirstGiving.com) so you can collect donations online.

Learn more about the Knit-a-Thon, or sign up, here.

Knit-a-Thon Info

Date: Sunday, November 8, 2009

Time: 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (you can come anytime during that window)

Location:

GE Healthcare
116 Huntington Ave.
Boston, MA 02116
map

GE Healthcare is near three T stops (Copley or Prudential on the Green Line; Back Bay on the Orange Line). Parking is available in the building, according to the Knit-A-Thon web page.

Purl for a Purpose Update

The Pine Street Inn's second annual Purl for a Purpose Knit-a-thon was on Sunday. I didn't quite reach my fundraising goal, and I'm embarrassed to say that I only managed to knit two squares before the event. (I ran into someone else who only knitted one, though, so that made me feel a bit better.) In hindsight, pledging 25 squares in the time I had (about six weeks) was probably unrealistic, even if I were a faster and more diligent knitter.

The good news is that the Knit-a-thon broke last year's 25 afghans made. Forty-six quilts were sewn together during the event, and about 15 more bags of squares were taken home by volunteers to be sewn into blankets. No word yet on how much money was raised, but I'll update this page with the info, and maybe pictures of some of the finished quilts, too. Update: $18,000 was raised this year. Photos from the Knit-a-thon are here and here.
The Pine Street Inn's residence program, which was the beneficiary of the Knit-a-thon, currently has 28 residences throughout the greater Boston area that give permanent housing to almost 500 formerly homeless tenants, both individuals and families. The program includes specialized housing for tenants with a history of mental illness or HIV/AIDS. Another 130 units are expected to open within the next two years.

Purl for a Purpose on Nov. 9 to raise money for Pine Street Inn

Boston's Pine Street Inn is having a Knit-a-thon Sunday, Nov. 9, from 11:00 a.m. till 5:00 p.m. to raise money for its housing program for formerly homeless people. It works like this: participants pledge to knit or crochet a certain number of 9"x9" squares and ask people to either make a flat donation or pledge on a per-square basis. The squares will be assembled into blankets that will be given to tenants of the Pine Street Inn residences.

Pine Street Inn makes it easy to create your own fundraising web page (through the site FirstGiving.com) so you can collect donations online. They ask that you start making squares before the event so that more blankets can be assembled during the Knit-a-thon. (Any kind of yarn is okay; just label each square to show its fiber content.)

Sign up for Purl for a Purpose, or learn more about it, here.

If you can't participate, please consider helping me raise money by clicking the Donate button and giving online.