Warm Up America!

The Warm Up America! logo is property of The Warm Up America! Foundation

Warm Up America (WUA) is a non-profit foundation that collects knit and crochet afghans or clothing for people that are in need of these items. The charity began in 1991 in a small town in Wisconsin with just an idea by founder Evie Rosen. The goal at that time was to knit and crochet afghans to help needy neighbors in the area. This simple charity idea grew over the years and now the program donates tens of thousands of knit and crochet items to people in need throughout the United States. The Warm Up America foundation keeps a list of charitable organizations are in need so they can ship the items received in the main office immediately to the agency on top of the request list. Donated afghans and items are given to the American Red Cross, women's shelters, children's hospitals, homeless shelters and others.

The goal of WUA is to promote and train volunteers to knit and crochet afghans and clothing items that will benefit people in need. Warm Up America assists volunteers spread throughout the United States by providing instructional materials and support to make the program a success in each local area, along with nationwide. Afghans and clothing collected through the WUA program in each local area will stay in that area for those in need. People that want to donate and are unable to find a local volunteer can send their items directly to the Warm Up America office for distribution. Information on where to send finished items is available at CraftYarnCouncil.com/Warmup.html.

There are several ways for people to donate knit and crochet projects to the Warm Up America program. After finding a local collection site (or choosing to send these items to the WUA office), crochet or a knit one or multiple 7 inch by 9 inch rectangle blocks. The program collects these blocks and sews them together to make patchwork afghans. The finished patchwork afghans have creative colors and textures that represent all the people that contributed to the afghan. A wide range of variety in the finished blocks gives the Warm Up America program a unique and rewarding experience for all that are involved. WUA will also accept complete afghans, instead of blocks, if this is your preference.

Free patterns and information on the Warm Up America program can be found at the Craft yarn Council website CraftYarnCouncil.com/Warmup.html. The site also offers a template and instructions to make the 7 inch by 9 inch block so it turns out the correct size for sewing together with blocks from other people. These instructions make it easy to participate in the WUA program whether you have a local volunteer and collection site or choose to send the items directly to the main office. The experience is rewarding know you are helping people that are in need in your local area.