Snowball Express 2025
It’s time to begin working on blankets for one of our annual national efforts, Snowball Express.
This event of the Gary Sinise Foundation is held annually in December for Gold Star kids (children who have lost active military parents) and kids of fallen first responders (in a separate following session). More info at the following link: www.garysinisefoundation.org/
Our need nationally will be for about 1800 of all types of blankets at least 45×60, inspected, fleece selvages removed, labels sewn on (4 sides please), checked for pins, and ready to distribute.
I’ve committed 75 blankets from our chapter. Please see the specifications below for Do’s and Don’ts on these blankets. All blankets should be at drop off locations by no later than October 1. The sooner the better!
Specifications:
- Make sure that the blankets are of all new materials: quilts, fleece, knitted, or crochet.
- All blankets must be 45 X 60 or larger. No exceptions. The children who attend must be at least 5 years old, so we do not need baby blankets. o 1 ½ to 2 yards of fleece makes a nice blanket. See projectlinus.org for finishing patterns. Be sure they lie flat after finishing.
- For fleece tied blankets, please make sure that they do not have selvages, are ONE layer only.
- Chapters should securely sew on a Project Linus National label. Sew them on flat and secure all four sides, please. Nothing else, no extra tags or notes. No glue or iron on please.
- Do not wrap up the blankets in any way. No individual plastic bags, no yarn or bows, nothing. We just have to take those off for sorting.
Themes – DO’s!
- Service-specific blankets are our greatest request (Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, Marines- in that order). For the first responder session, fire and police themes, as well as medical/rescue are appreciated.
- Next favorite are Star Wars, Superheroes, Minions, Disney, and camouflage.
- These kids also like popular themes so we need plenty of sports, cartoon characters, cheer, gymnastics, puppies, kittens, horses, lady bugs, any animal, etc.
- We do want blankets from National major league teams (NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA)!
- The kids loved the blankets that were entirely crocheted. They also loved the chunky chenille crocheted blankets.
Themes – DON’Ts!
- DO NOT send any blankets that closely resemble the US flag. Flags are draped over caskets at military and first responder funerals and may remind of that terrible day. (Flags within a print or other red, white & blue are ok.)
- No College teams/logos – we can’t know where kids are from or who they support.
- No Christmas or specific holiday themed blankets
This is a great event and one that our chapter has supported for years!