who what where

Who What Where: Operation Sock Monkey

| Betsy

monkey Logo taglineOL 281x300

Who: Operation Sock Monkey

What: Making, Adopting, Sponsoring a Sock Monkey for a Child

Where: Everywhere

Operation Sock Monkey’s mission is:

Operation Sock Monkey is a volunteer-run initiative in support of humanitarian organizations that provide laughter, hope and healing to communities around the world affected by disease, disaster and social/political turmoil. Handmade Sock Monkeys can be purchased or sponsored to be sent to children in need of a smile.

Funky Monkey
You can go buy a monkey like this now!

How to Help: (text from here)
Donate a Monkey: Send us your sock monkeys and we’ll find them good homes. Monkey delegates are sent to live in communities in distress to help bring smiles to folks who need them. (You can learn how to make a sock monkey here!)

Adopt a Monkey: Buy an OSM Sock Monkey and we’ll donate the proceeds to Clowns Without Borders. We have a variety of sock animals for children of all ages. Visit the sock zoo.

Sponsor a Monkey: buy a sock monkey sponsorship and we’ll send a sock monkey to someone in need of a smile. You will receive a colorful sponsorship card that can be given as a gift. (Check out the Sponsorship Gallery here!

Buy OSM Treats: Specialty items like notecards, calendars and D-I-Y kits for making your own sock animals at home! All proceeds go to CWB, of course.

Donate to OSM: We’d be happy to accept donations for monkey supplies and shipping, but we also recommend donating to Clowns Without Borders directly by clicking here. (You can buy OSM treats here!)

Become an OSM Operative: Start up your own Operation to make and sell sock monkeys in your community to benefit CWB or the charity of your choice.

To find out more, check out the Operation Sock Monkey website (you can also find out how to hold a OSM workshop or party here) or visiting them on Twitter, @woollybananas.

Who What Where: Collaborative Embroidery Project Helps Breast Cancer Patients Relax

| Betsy

What is this post? It’s a new start of a post once a week called Who What Where, highlighting craftivism-related people, books and projects. Meant for both a quick read and a longer one, here’s a quick rundown plus links to where you can find more information!

Who: Gisela Griffith

What: Secrets of Nature, Collaborative Embroidery Project with fellow breast cancer patients

Where: Lobby of the Shapiro Ambulatory Care Center at Boston Medical Center; Boston, MA

Idea: When Gisela Griffith was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007, she decided to research the plants that the drugs themselves came from. (Neat, huh?) Then she started painting the plants as she began to know more about them, then switched to embroidery “to help her relax during her illness.” This began a new interest in ethnobotany. While doing this, she noted, “Why don’t I share this with other people as a way to relax and meditate on their journey?” And just like that, a collaborative art project was born!

Article:

The exhibit is a group show that features embroideries of plants used in chemotherapy from survivors, patients, and family members of all sewing abilities.

The project started after Griffith painted about eight plants before hitting a creative block and switched to embroidery to help relax during her illness.

That’s when the idea struck her: “Why don’t I share this with other people as a way to relax and meditate on their journey,” she recalled at the opening.

Griffith assembled kits, each with a unique plant design and all the materials needed to complete a needlework, and distributed them to interested patients at BMC.

She also provided individual lessons to those who had never done needlework while they received their treatment.

“I liked her spirit. Working with Gisela, she kept going ‘I don’t care if you do it badly the first time or you’ve never done it before. Just give it a try’,” said Midge Vreeland, an embroidery beginner who stitched Curcuma longa, that is used to produce the drug curcumin.

Vreeland, who lives in Maine, made sure to schedule her doctor’s appointment on the same day as the exhibit opening. She said she liked a positive project to focus on during treatment that also taught her more about her treatment.

“We keep hearing do everything natural, exercise, take organic–it’s kind of nice to know these actual plants were the start of chemotherapy drugs,” she said.