Motivated by a New Year's resolution to do something for others in need, Maribelle Pokoina has collected 200 blankets for homeless people in Sydney since the first of the year.
Onto each of those blankets she and her friends sewed messages of what she calls, “hope, love and empowerment."
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"Because everyone," she says, "needs a blanket of love.”
Maribelle, who is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, began the project by asking friends and family to e-mail her a message, in 25 words or less, that would be appropriate for her to put onto the blankets.
She found her first 20 blankets at the Red Cross in February. Then blankets began coming to her home from places as varied as Brisbane, Darwin and Wollongong. In six weeks she had 150 blankets for her project.
In March and April, friends helped her sew messages onto the blankets.
Come June, 50 additional blankets were donated from her former workplace. “In all, 200 blankets were given out," she says. "Double my original target."
They were handed out to homeless people in Sydney, most of them around Town Hall City.”
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