Make the World Better with a Sweater! / Hands Occupied Sweater Party

One month from today, I’m partnering with one of my favorite local yarn shops, Nina, and Save the Children to help make the world better for kids this holiday season! And there’s going to be a Hands Occupied Sweater Party in the process! It turns out that Friday, December 12 is National Christmas Sweater Day, and Save the Children wants the world to wear a sweater (regular, festive, ugly or otherwise) and donate $5 to help fund their important work with kids around the world. I want to take that one step further by having a party that day to celebrate sweaters, the season, and raise money for a good cause. I think that we can easily raise $500 as a team, don’t you? Read on for more about Save the Children, the party, how to donate, and how to win some giveaway prizes for participating.

What is Save the Children?

Save the Children does some amazing work all over the world, including the United States. Recently, they have been very active in efforts to help stem the ebola crisis in Africa, doing things like supporting new orphans and being involved in boosting public awareness about the disease. They do a ton of advocacy and policy work to help create laws specifically designed to protect or help millions of children. As a person who works with teens in a lower income community, I can see how important organizations like Save the Children are. This personal connection to working with children is why I decided to support Save the Children this holiday season. Impressively, nearly 90% of their budget is actually spent on the programs and services they deliver (source: Charity Navigator). While some of their budget comes from grants, well over half comes directly from donations. And that’s where we’re going to try to help them out, and have a little fun at the same time!

How can you help?

The campaign we’ll be a part of is called Make the World Better with a Sweater. We’re knitters & crocheters here, we know how awesome sweaters are. SC wants to raise money to help fund their amazing work with kids. Also amazing. Here’s Save the Children’s and my pitch to you:

Make the World Better with a Sweater is a woolly wonderful way to do good and have fun this holiday season. How? You can agree to wear a festive holiday sweater on or around December 12, donate $5 or more to Save the Children and spread the holiday joy! Together, with sweaters, we can make the world a better place – transforming children’s lives and the future we all share.

This campaign alone is a great start, but I thought it would be fun to amp it up with a full on sweater party on Friday, December 12 at local yarn store Nina. You can come wearing the sweater you knit in the fall knit along that ends soon, you can knit a tiny sweater, you can come wearing your first-ever scarf, you can even come with just an awesome sweater you like to wear. Bring $5 or more to donate to Save the Children, and come ready to enjoy holiday snacks and a fashion show for those wanting to show of their knits. There will be an Instagram photo booth for those wanting to share their best knits online too. #HOsweaterparty might be in order, don’t you think?

I want to raise at least $500 for this cause. That means that just 100 people need to donate $5 to make it happen. Where can you donate right now? Here: http://www.savethechildren.org/SpreadtheJoy/handsoccupied. Even if you have friends or family who aren’t crafty who want to donate, they can donate there too. This is the kind of thing the phrase “the more the merrier” was invented for!

Party Details

What: A sweater & knitting-themed party & fundraiser hosted by yours truly, with 100% of all donations benefitting Save the Children

Where: Nina yarn shop in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood

When: Friday, December 12, 5:00 to 7:30 p.m.

What to bring: Yourself, a suggested $5+ donation, and a finished sweater or other knit or crochet object you’d like to share

What if I can’t make it to the party but want to donate? You can visit the donation page at http://www.savethechildren.org/SpreadtheJoy/handsoccupied and donate from anywhere in the world, any time!

There’s more! Giveaways to be exact!

Just in case the good cause, fun party and sweater action aren’t enough to get you excited about donating, Save the Children is giving away $50 to WEBS America’s Yarn Store as an added incentive. They just get more awesome the more you learn about them. To enter the giveaway, you can share your sweater spirit on Instagram using #HOsweaterparty and #sweater. You can also paste a link to where you donated online to enter as well.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And if you attend the Nina party, there’s going to be some fun giveaway action in person just for people attending the party!

I will not be compensated for this post or the party. The gift card giveaway is provided by Save the Children, and party giveaway items will be provided by Nina.