Volunteers meet once a year to make as many hand-tied fleece blankets as possible in this one evening. Last years blankets were donated to many local organizations including: Safe Haven for Youth,The Family Place, Gillette Children’s Hospital, and Hospice-Minnesota.
No Sewing Skills Required!!! You DO NOT need to know how to sew. All you need to do is cut fabric, and tie a knot.
What To Bring: Fleece, a pair of sharp scissors, and a friend or two!
Fleece needed per blanket – Child sized = 3 yards (2 pieces @1.5 yards each) Teen/adult sized = 5 yards (2 pieces @2.5 yards each)
We have room for over 200 people, and refreshments will be served!
If you are unable to attend, we are also accepting donations of fleece or “funds for fleece!”
This is an all volunteer event, and we couldn’t do it with out all the generous donations and participation! Hope to see you on Oct 9th!
For information, email us at: loveofpeyton@gmail.com
FYI – Peyton is now six years old and never without a smile!
Location: Transfiguration Lutheran Church
11000 France Ave S, Bloomington, MN
UPDATE as of Sep 26th, 2010!
Wrapped in Love –
Minneapolis Woman Takes Inspiration from Grandson’s Fight for Life
For Immediate Release, September 23, 2010
Minneapolis, Minnesota
The inspiration For the Love of Peyton Blanket Party was a hand-tied blanket given to Peyton Bocklage during his treatment for cancer at 7 months old. In honor of Peyton who recently celebrated his sixth birthday, happy and healthy, the volunteer-driven, 6th Annual For the Love of Peyton Blanket Party, Saturday October 9, 2010 at 6:30 PM, Transfiguration Lutheran Church, 11000 France Avenue South, Bloomington, Minnesota, continues the tradition of bringing comfort, hope and love to others through the making and distribution of hand-tied blankets to hospices and shelters including Cherish the children, People Serving People and Hospice of the Twin cities for Children and adults who so desperately need to be wrapped in love.
In 2005, Berva Bocklage, a Mound, Minnesota resident answered a phone call no parent or grandparent ever wants to receive. Her seven month old grandson, Peyton, from Florida, had just been diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a cancer whose prognosis is more favourable if diagnosed before one year of age. Berva explains, “Go on line and look up neuroblastoma and your heart drops to the floor.”
Surgery at 7 months, when Peyton turned 1 year of age, he had cancer from head to toe. Fighting infections and delays for many months, finally two bone marrow transplants and then radiation, Peyton was 2 when they said “no sign of cancer.” Never far from her mind, as Berva told us, “Peyton has his big test every August while we hold our breath and wait for the results.”
Touched by the hand-tied blanket Peyton received during treatment, Berva Bocklage decided that she would do all she could to bring hope to others in despair by creating the “For the Love of Peyton Blanket Party”. Her friends on the ready to help, the first party was held in a friend’s home. Growing larger each year the Blanket Party moved to a restaurant, then hospital conference room and now is held in a Church Fellowship Hall.
A grass roots effort of family and friends, all is achieved with an army of Minnesota volunteers and donations for the “fleece fund”. In 2009 a group of over 200 volunteers lovingly tied 350 blankets which were distributed throughout the Twin Cities to hospitals and shelters including Cherish the Children, People Serving People and Hospice of the Twin Cities.
Heather Reynolds, director of Cherish the Children, the childcare center at the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center, “Our program is one of the programs that receive the wonderful blankets from “For the Love of Peyton Blanket Party.” At the childcare center we use the blankets as gifts for the holidays. I have seen children come to the center all bundled up in their blankets because their parents are walking or bussing with the children in cold weather.”
Volunteers For the Love of Peyton Blanket Party come from all walks of Minnesota life; doctors, moms, IT specialists, carpenter, teachers, retirees, grandmas and grandpas, high school students, youth groups, nurses, photographers. Second year volunteer and Faculty of Dentistry student, Eva Lau, is challenging her classmates and the Faculty of Medicine at U of M to volunteer at this October’s Blanket Party to tie blankets for those in need.
Kristin Debner, Volunteer Coordinator, Hospice of the Twin Cities, “Many of our patients reside in Nursing Homes and the blankets your group provides help to make their rooms feel more like home. Our staff tells us how the patients’ faces light up when their blankets are brought out to them.”
The Love of Peyton Committee, also volunteers, work diligently throughout the year to make this one evening annual October event a success, with the focus of surpassing the previous years target of numbers of blankets made, so they can be distributed to more charities and a greater number of children and adults in need can receive these hand-tied blankets.
Amy Jenkins, Director of Development, People Serving People, “When families arrive at People Serving People, often the only belongings they have fit into a garbage bag. Being homeless means that you are often forced to be transient. Blankets are important because they can keep children and their families warm and also offer security, much like a baby’s blanket does.”
The spirit has gone global. This year the first Peyton Fleece Fund raiser will be held in Canada by a group of women who are inspired by Bocklage’s conviction.
Berva explains “Because of your effort as a volunteer or when you make a donation to The Love of Peyton Blanket Party, know that you are making an important difference to someone’s life.” The 6th Annual For the Love of Peyton Blanket Party will help many who need to be wrapped in love.
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FOR INTERVIEW OR TO FILM THE EVENT ON LOCATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Berva Bocklage – creator of “For the Love of Peyton”
email: berva.bocklage@gmail.com call: 952 472 2590
Marlys Olson – Love of Peyton Committee
Email: olsonmk@hotmail.com phone number: 952-934-7029
Leontine Larson 952-472-5096
Hi-Res photos of Peyton & For the Love of Peyton Blanket Party available upon request
Those who wish to volunteer or donate, please contact:
Marlys Olson – Love of Peyton Committee
Email: loveofpeyton@gmail.com
More quotes from organizations:
Heather Reynolds, Director of Cherish the Children and recipient of blankets continues, “Last year we also used some of the blankets to replace our old worn quilts that the children use at their nap times. Many children have a favorite blanket that they choose again and again and it really helps them to have that familiar blanket at nap time – especially if they are struggling with separation.
We really are grateful for these blankets and the children really do love them. I should say that ours is not the only program at the center here that uses the blankets. Children in our emergency department, other housing programs and our Family Stabilization programs also get blankets when they need them.”