Tackle it Tuesday: Craft Hope for Oil Spill Relief

Have you heard of Craft Hope? I hadn't until a friend clued me in since she knew I knit and have done a few charity projects. Project 8 for Craft Hope is collecting wash cloths and hand towels to use to clean oil off of dolphins and sea turtles and other marine life affected (physically coated in oil, that is), since we know:

"Ask any ecosystem, harm here is harm there....and there....and there...." Ani DiFranco.

From their site:

For Project 8 we will be partnering with The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies, the Audubon Nature Institute, and the Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge to assist them in their efforts in caring for and cleaning oiled marine mammals, mostly dolphins, other marine mammals, birds, and sea turtles. Dolphins are naturally curious and have been swimming toward the oil plumes to investigate… and that curiosity gets them in a lot of trouble against the oil slick.

So, instead of sitting down and knitting 10 or 20 washcloths (as that would have taken me 10 or 20 weeks), I cut up a few old towels, and surged the edges, and sent them off with a bottle of Dawn. It's not important what the cloths look like. The important thing is that they are cotton (not synthetic) and cut to the size specified (10 x 10 for washcloths). I feel glad to have been able to help even in that small way.


And I also feel glad that I was able to make this a lesson to my girls. It opened up the conversation about the suffering animals and their spirit and what we can do to help. I know that when people sit and handcraft anything for a specific cause, it's nice to channel energy into the project in hopes of the positive energy being passed on. Whether it be a prayer shaw for a sick friend, a sweater for an Afghan child, or a baby hat and boots for an expected baby. In this case, I put my energy into hope that the people with their HANDS ON could use the towels I was sending to save the life of these creatures. And my kids so sweetly did the same. I asked them to put their hands on the pile of towels and ask for a blessing from Mother Nature. This is what they said,

"Dear Mother Nature, please use these towels to clean the animals and help them live."

When we dropped the package off at the post office, my kids really wanted to tell the post lady what we were sending and why. It touched them. They got it. They wanted others to get it, too. I accomplished something!

My tackling this project was NOTHING compared to the job the rescue workers are tackling. I decided to post this on a day that I could link it to a party (Tackle it Tuesday )(V. and Co.) (Blue Cricket Design) (Sew Much Ado) (House of Hepworths) to spread the word about Craft Hope and Project 8. That's the beauty of blogging, is it not?