Wrap Them in Love





Wrap Them in Love Foundation is a non-profit, tax exempt organization created to help needy children of the world.

Our Mission is to collect donated quilts and distribute them to children around the world so, they can be wrapped in the love of a quilt.
As we all know, a quilt is a very special thing.
It isn't just a blanket. It has been lovingly created by a real person.
A quilter leaves a part of themselves in every quilt they make.
The child who receives that quilt will be able to snuggle up in all the love that comes in a quilt.

Wrap Them in Love   401 N Olympic Ave    Arlington, Washington   98223
Make a Donation to help us provide more children with quilts.



Rosebud Project


Our first Christmas Box Project in 2002 was such a great success that we decided to make it a yearly project! Through the help of people like you, we were able to provide 714 people on the reservation with a gift box for Christmas. So start now planning for the next Christmas.

Christmas Box Project

Are you looking for a fun project to do with your children or a class?
Join us in our Christmas Box project for the Rosebud Reservation.
Use a standard adult size shoe box. All boxes must be back by December 1st so we have time to distribute them to Pine Ridge. Our Goal is to distribute at least 1000 boxes. If you don't want to do a box, you can always send donations of items that we can add to the boxes that we are making here.

Boxes should contain:
Toothbrush and toothpaste
Shampoo (Since Shampoo is so heavy and expensive to ship, please don't include shampoo in the boxes for 2003.)
Soap
A pair of new socks
Your choice of gifts
$5 to help us with shipping costs

You are welcome to add gifts to the box as long as the lid will fit. Think about what kind of little gifts that you would like to receive. Don't forget about something fun
You can decorate the lid of the box if you'd like. If you wrap the box, please be sure to wrap the box and lid separately.

Please put a label on the side of the box for one of these categories:
Baby - Boy or Baby - Girl (age 0 to 2 years)
Toddler - Boy or Toddler - Girl (age 2 to 6 years)
Child - Boy or Child - Girl (age 6 to 12 years)
Teen - Boy or Teen - Girl (age 12 to 18)
Adult - Man or Adult - Woman


Make a Donation to help us help the people at Pine Ridge and Rosebud.

In August,2002, I planned a trip to drive to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota to deliver quilts to the children there. I have a large van, so I decided that since I was going to make the long trip, I may as well have a full van, so I let others know that I could take other donations that they might have. As the time to leave for the trip came closer, the donations started coming in faster. Soon I knew that my van could never hold all of the things that were piling up in the back of my store. So, I borrowed a large pickup truck with a canopy to take along with the van. That was still not going to do it. We tried desparately to find a trailer to borrow, but couldn't, so at the last minute, we ended up renting a large u-haul trailer to pull with the truck!

We spent hours and hours sorting through bags and boxes of donations, washing, folding, packing. Teens from the Arlington United Church spent one day here sorting through boxes of clothes and packing them for us. Many people helped out with some dollars to help to pay for our gas for the trip---in fact, we are still paying those gas bills! The Downtown Merchants in Arlington even helped us out.

Without any extra space, we were finally ready to hit the road at 1:33am on August 19th. We had packed 215 Wrap Them in Love quilts, 168 boxes of clothing of all sizes, diapers, some soap and toothpaste (toothpaste donated by area dentists!) two cribs, a youth bed, 6 strollers, 6 car seats, a baby swing, and whatever else we managed to squeeze into the vehicles. In the van was my daughter, Katie and myself and in the truck was another daughter, Kacee, and her friend Stephen. After stopping to top off the gas tanks, we were finally on the road, with Steve and Kacee in the lead. 17 minutes later, we were stopped at a rest stop to check on the trailer's mysterious blinking and fading lights. After a few minutes of fiddling with the connections, we were back on the road again!

We had a set of walkie-talkie's so that we could talk to each other while we were driving. Those really came in handy to keep each other alert and also to decide where and when to stop for gas and breaks.

We drove 13 hours to Helena, Montana and stopped to visit relatives there. They provided us with a chance to sit and relax, a terrific dinner, the use of their shower and beds where we caught a few hours of sleep before getting up at 1:00am and quietly "saddling up and hitting the trail" again. We tried not to wake anyone when we left since we knew that they all had to get up and go to work, but I'm sure that the dogs barking good-bye to us were heard by all!

While I drove, Katie wrote notes about the trip. Here is a little glimpse of what she wrote:

"3:01am We've stopped at a gas station in Montana that claims to be 'the cleanest gas station in Montana'. Unfortunately, there is no coffee--Mom's life-blood on this trip, and we forgot a thermos. We also need water for the truck and there is no water here, at least that we can see.
3:09am Now we've found another gas station - still looking for water. We're also filling up our jug for later use. We just noticed that we have Belle's Rock! Belle (Erik's chocolate lab in Helena where we stopped) put a rock on the step of the van. Apparently it never fell off. We put it in the van for safe keeping.
4:38am COFFEE!!!! We finally found a place that was open!!
and then 12 hours later
4:31pm We're on 18, looking for our right turn. Stopped at Texaco to empty out the cool yellow cooler we borrowed from Auntie.
Appparently the section that holds the ice doesn't hold water (go figure)! So, we had to clean up the little mess."

Of course, there was a lot more writing (when Katie was awake) besides that, but I don't want all of you to fall asleep too! After 29 hours of driving time, we finally reached Pine Ridge!



Pine Ridge is in the poorest county in the entire USA. The situation there is absolutely devastating. There are 40,000 people on the Pine Ridge reservation----located in a desolate part of the coutry that everyone just puts out of their mind and forgets about. The unemployment rate there is 90%! That's right, it is NINETY percent!
Many houses have no electricity. And in a place where the temperatures in summer are over 100 degrees, and way below freezing in the winter, that can be a real problem. Some of the tiny houses don't even have water or plumbing, and some of those little house have 15 to 30 people living in them. Those who do have a house will take in others who have no place to live. There is such a housing shortage there.
Think about bathing your baby in the water taken from the tank of the toilet because that is the only water that there is available. Because of the lack of food and poor diet, the disease rate is much higher than the rest of the country. Diabetes is EIGHT times higher than the rest of the country----heart disease is 3 to 4 times higher. The life expectancy for a male there is only 56 years old. That is 20 YEARS lower that the rest of the USA. And BABIES die there 2 1/2 times more than babies in the rest of the USA.

More of the story of our Pine Ridge Trip to come soon. Please read about our Christmas project.