Progress!!

I have a friend for whom words and oxygen are in constant competition. On a daily basis, I'm always trying to drag her out of the lunch room so that we won't be late for French. I reiterate to her, "Forward motion is a wonderful thing."

I'm truly excited to say that while my friend is still working on the idea of "forward motion," Caring Caps seems to have captured it in the blink of an eye! People are finding various ways to participate in it: A local group of yarn-crafters have committed themselves to either knitting or crocheting for two hours every Friday. On September 28th, we had the first finished project of the group, and it was magical. As this was the woman's first project, there were mistakes that she had made. Although no one else would know about them, she had deemed those tiny displays of non-uniformity as just enough cause to keep her first project for herself. Yet, as my mom and packed up our supplies to go home, I noticed the woman's child-like glee as she tried on her steel blue cowl. I didn't stop to praise the incredibly fast forward "motion that" she had made for the umpteenth time; I let her bask in the moment that was warm like summer sunshine that drips and permeates slowly into your skin, and quietly slipped out behind my mother.

Countless others are weaving themselves into the fabric of Caring Caps, and each person is bringing something dazzlingly unable to be duplicated. Parents of my friends have offered to help cover costs of yarn and needles, and members of the Brooks Place Knitters have agreed to help add to the number of donations. Loads of help in the schematics of Caring Caps is coming in, too. Several staff at the Clark County Public Library are helping me with advertising ideas, blocking off time to use a room, and fixing technical errors and problems. The team is growing, but it's missing someone: You.

Current Donations

                                 This is a picture of the donations that have been made so far!

Beginnings

An overwhelming mass of people live without the slightest consideration of the effects their life will leave, or without allowing those thoughts to change their actions. I am fifteen years old, and can't say I've done anything that has been world-shattering or mind-blowing. Some may say that kind of existence is normal. Settling for normality has never been like me, though, and that's one thing that is not going to change.
These are the kinds of thoughts and ponderings that have lead me to begin Caring Caps, my Girl Scout Gold Award Project. Caring Caps is an acronym for Citizens Answer Real Issues Giving Care And Personal Security. I have designed this project to address homelessness and poverty in my community, as well as to educate the public about these issues. Through Caring Caps, people are to knit and crochet items for donation to Operation Happiness, a winter holiday service program. People in need will be appreciative of store-bought gifts, which may be necessary to their survival; they will be shocked and captivated by the gesture of handmade gifts filled with time, love, and compassion. Winter holidays can be especially tough for those who are impoverished or homeless. While the season can be filled with giving, it can also be an inundation of commercialism, and being forgotten, as those who have helped them return to their families, consumed by the hustle and bustle of holiday traditions - and the chaotic, whirlwind that is life. Thus, such a seemingly insignificant action, like giving a handmade item, can instill in someone that there are people who care about them, and are working to make their lives better. For these reasons, I am teaching knitting and crocheting classes at the Clark County library in Winchester, Kentucky. It is my hope that participants in the classes and in the overall project will explore the art of  knitting and crocheting to share with others.  More importantly, I hope that with information about the plight of the homeless and impoverished around us, that each person will have a mindset of resurgent change, aid, and action. This is project that is just taking flight -it's in its baby stage, if you will. In order for it to be successful, it needs people. So get involved, and tell everyone you know about it! If you do, the extension of its benefits could be endless.
I may not change the world in such a world-renowned fashion that my name echoes the history books - or blog pages - for eons to come, but if I can change the life of just one person for the better, then I cannot find a reason to be unsatisfied; if every person looks deep enough within themselves, I believe they will find the same thing to be true, too.