Dec. 2, 2008 — After seeing video clips of children in different countries shivering while they slept, local resident Tressa Murray decided to make fleece blankets for orphans. On Saturday, Dec. 13, Murray and a group of people will be cutting and tying blankets during a Blanket for Orphans All-Night event at Community Evangelical Free Church located on Gay Street. The blankets will have a pattern on one side and a solid color on the other side.

The goal is to make a minimum of 50 blankets. Murray said she really wants to send them to Africa because the country seems to have children and families who are the most in need.

Murray said she is looking for donations — whether polar fleece or money — to help purchase supplies for the blankets and to cover the shipping costs.

She said fleece is needed for baby blankets about three by two feet as well as for adult-sized blankets. If people want to donate fleece, Murray said it should have kid-friendly patterns and asks that the material not have war-related themes.

For the past year, Murray has sponsored a child from Ecuador through World Vision, a Christian organization that provides humanitarian aid around the globe.

World Vision is also the organization who provided the video clips that Murray watched.

She said some of the videos show large rooms — with dirt floors — full of shivering children sleeping without blankets. Other clips show families living in a home the size of a medium-sized American bedroom. She said some of the children are considered lucky if they have a cardboard box to sleep in.

If she doesn’t have enough money to send the blankets to Africa, Murray said she will send them to World Vision and have it decide who to distribute the blankets to.

If anyone would like to donate to the blanket cause call Murray at 257-0951 or Jennifer Uruburu at 310-0164.