Thanks to a generous grant from the Avista Foundation, RSVP was able to purchase over 1,000 skeins of brand new yarn for our Project Warm-Up volunteers.
Back in November 2019, we were fortunate enough to be awarded a $2,000 grant from the Avista Foundation to purchase supplies for Project Warm-Up. Last week, we used these funds to purchase a hefty stockpile of Mainstays Basic yarn from Walmart at an excellent price. Our gratitude goes out once more to Avista Foundation and their Executive Director, Kristine Meyer, for enabling us to supply a greater number of volunteers with yarn in order to keep Spokane County's low-income and homeless people warm in the winter!
So how can we better estimate the impact of all that yarn?
To be precise, we purchased 1,016 skeins of Mainstays Basic yarn, each skein being 397 yds. of medium (4) gauge yarn. Running the numbers through this online knitting calculator (numbers will differ for crocheting projects), we can estimate that our volunteers could make the following with all this yarn:
2,400+ pairs of adult mittens or 4,000+ pairs of child mittens
2,200+ adult hats, 2,600+ child hats, or 3,000+ infant hats
1,200+ adult scarves (6" x 70") or 2,200+ child scarves (5" x 48")
250+ adult sweaters (size M), 450+ child sweaters (size 10), or 1,000+ baby sweaters (size 12 mos.)
180+ afghans, 300+ baby blankets, or 500+ lap blankets
Trying to visualize all that? It's the equivalent of supplying enough scarves, hats, and pairs of mittens for five elementary schools.* It's the equivalent of supplying a scarf, hat, and pair of mittens to nearly every homeless person in Spokane County.** It's the equivalent of supplying enough lap blankets for the residents of four large nursing homes.***
Thank you, Avista Foundation!
For a limited time, we are not distributing yarn due to the RSVP office closure during the COVID-19 pandemic. We are looking into the feasibility of delivering yarn to our volunteers who are confined to their homes by the pandemic. Check back here or on our Facebook page for updates.*According to Public School Review, 80 public schools in Spokane serve 33,714 students, for an average of 421 students per school.
**According to the US HUD, the homeless population of Spokane in 2018 was 1,245 people.
***Nursing home capacities based on the U.S. News & World Report directory.