Blanket Drive 2011 Revisited

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Underwear Turns into Blankets

As many of our faithful blog readers may remember just before the holiday season NEOCH received a donation of new thong underwear for 100 homeless women. As one can imagine NEOCH staff were a little taken aback by the donation. We wondered if it would appear inappropriate for us to donate them to shelters. To address this concern we put it to a vote on our blog, and contacted The Plain Dealer. The blog readers voted that we should go ahead and donate them. The Plain Dealer article mentioned that during the winter month’s blankets and warm clothing is also a welcome and much needed donation. Those one hundred pairs of thong underwear generated many blanket donations. I just recently drove to Olmstead Falls to pick up a large number of blankets. A local business owner in Olmstead Falls coordinated a blanket drive after reading about the donation of thongs in the newspaper. This Olmstead Falls resident said she plans on doing another blanket drive next year.

Many blankets were donated due to the major media outlets that went into a frenzy over the discovery of Ted Williams and his “Golden Voice.” Brian Davis was interviewed in response to Mr. Williams’s overnight success. Brian pointed out that Cleveland’s homeless shelters are full of talented people. He also pointed out that on an average night roughly 4,000 people are homeless in Cleveland and that the donation of blankets is vital to survival in the winter months. The owner of a Medina County auto repair store (RADAIR, Complete Car Care) viewed this interview on the news and coordinated an expansive blanket drive that raised almost 1,000 blankets, many were waterproof outdoor blankets which the homeless outreach workers of Cleveland, who visit people living outside on a regularly basis greatly appreciated. These waterproof outdoor blankets were amazing, and all of us have to thank Lisa and the other RADAIR staff for all their hard work.

These are just two examples of the many blanket donations NEOCH has received. Since December over 1500 blankets have been donated to NEOCH and distributed to various shelters and homeless social service providers. The community has done a fantastic job in helping those living in the shelters and on the streets of Cleveland.

by Holly Lyon
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