Help keep the whole community warm!
Fill our bright baskets November 1-January 2 (see locations below).
Winter Warming gathers new, handmade items – from baby booties, shawls, sweaters, and lap blankets, to socks, mitts, hats, and scarves – to distribute to kids and families, youths, adults, singles and seniors, anyone who needs a hand staying warm as the weather turns cold.
Contact Living Earth to get involved in this Community Compassion project!
Winter Warming Donation Baskets welcome new handcrafted items November 1 – January 2 at select New Seasons Markets, all Portland Beneficial State Bank branches, and several small Portland businesses. Here’s where you can find us:
These New Seasons Markets stores:
- Grant Park : NE 32nd and Broadway
- Happy Valley : SE Sunnyside Road | 157th Ave.
- Hawthorne : SE Hawthorne | 41st
- Sellwood : 1214 SE Tacoma
- Seven Corners : SE 19th | Division
Slabtown : NW 21st | Raleigh- Woodstock : 4500 SE Woodstock
- Fisher’s Landing : 2100B SE 164th Ave. | Vancouver
All Beneficial State Bank locations:
- The Pearl : 320 NW 10th and Everett
- Beaumont District : 4020B NE Fremont | 42nd
- MLK : 2002 NE MLK | San Rafael
- Rose City : NE Sandy Blvd. | NE 57th
- St John’s : Lombard at N. Oswego
- Telegram | Downtown : SW Washington | 11th
Close Knit Portland: 2140 NE Alberta, Portland
CAT Thrift Store: 4838 SW Scholl’s Ferry Road, just west of Beaverton Hillsdale Hwy and Oleson Road.
About Winter Warming:
Winter Warming connects creative compassion with folks in need. Countless anonymous craftsfolk become Winter Warming bodhisattvas each fall, to help others through the winter. Living Earth helps make those connections.
How it works: Handcrafters knit, crochet, and sew hats and scarves, blankets, booties, shawls, and more for people in need, from infants through the elderly. Their fingers are busy on the bus, while they’re watching TV or listening to podcasts, working at their own pace and time.
Then, between November 1 and early January, they drop their items in our donation baskets in select New Seasons Markets, Beneficial State Bank locations, and other Portland area businesses.
Living Earth volunteers pick up donations every week to be distributed throughout the city. Some items go to individuals living outdoors along with our Brown Bag deliveries. Others go to housed individuals and families who still need help staying warm in winter.
Some of our partner agencies include:
- Adelante Mujeres
- Blanchet House
- Meals on Wheels
- IRCO Africa House / IRCO Senior Center
- Portland Public School Clothes Closet
- Providence Elderplace
- Rose Haven for Women
- Transition Projects
In our first year, 2009, our basket gathered 245 handmade items at a single New Seasons location (7 Corners). Ten years later, our baskets are in a dozen locations and collect more than 1,000 warm items each year, donated by people we’ll never know. Our volunteers tally, sort, and organize them, and then give them away. It’s that simple, and that beautiful.
Don’t sew or knit but still want to help? Volunteer for donation pick-ups, tallying, data entry, and the give-away deliveries. It involves just one to three hours per week, mid October thru mid January. And we’d love to have your help! Contact us if you’d like to help keep the Winter Warming Project strong.