It’s difficult to believe that nearly 10 years ago, our small organization went from five women in the Beaverton, ORarea wanting to make blankets to a national organization thanks to Oprah Winfrey’s talk show.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
CONTACT: SUSAN FINCH, FOUNDER
TEL: 503-214-8346
EMAIL: sfinch@binkypatrol.org
BINKY PATROL COMFORTING COVERS FOR KIDS
CELEBRATES 10 YEARS OF COMFORTING CHILDREN AND TEENS
JUNE 7, 2006 – LAGUNA BEACH, CALIFORNIA – In 1996 s a small group of five women were eager to help founder, Susan Finch comfort children and teens through the gifts of handmade blankets. Within one month, this group of women with limited time to do all they wanted for the children grew into a national all-volunteer non-profit organization comforting children across the country and throughout the world with over 60 chapters. Today there are over 110 chapters in 40 states.
The final count is still coming in, but it is close to 350,000 binkies delivered since we began in 1996. What started as a solution to allow people to volunteer on their own schedule without a lot of rules, has turned into a national organization that’s made a difference in thousands of lives.
Our humble beginnings were quite seat-of-the-pants and we just followed our hearts and said “yes” to every opportunity and challenge. Although we’ve grown tremendously, it hasn’t lessened our volunteers’ enthusiam and their decidication to our mission of making and giving handmade blankets to children and teens in need of comfort.
We have never judged people based on how they got into the various situations, what their parents history was, nature of illness, etc.; we just wanted to provide a reminder that these babies, children and teens were not forgotten and that someone out there loved them. Mission accomplished!
We just want to make blankets and give them away. Simple as that.
Other highlights include:
- Small article in Family Circle – 1999 – 3500 letters!
- Featured website in Kim Komando’s techie newsletter. – helped us secure two major sponsors
- 10 successful, annual, national Bink-A-Thons involved up to 25 chapters at one time simultaneouly making binkies within six hours on a specified date.
- Adoption by Orange County, California Girl Scouts – over 5,000 binkies and counting!
- Good Samaritin Award – 2003
- Job’s Daughters of California adopting our organization for a year – over 2500 binkies
To learn more about Binky Patrol, visit our website at https://binkypatrol.org or call 503-214-8346.
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