Charity Drive Collects 6,311 Red Baby Hats for Charity

AllFreeCrochet.com’s latest charity drive with the American Heart Association, “Little Hats, Big Hearts,” has drawn to a close and was a tremendous success. The editors of AllFreeCrochet.com asked readers to mail in knitted or crocheted red baby hats to help raise awareness for heart disease, the number one killer of Americans, and congenital heart defects, the most common type of birth defect in the country.

The charity drive ran throughout the month of September, and AllFreeCrochet was able to collect 6,300 hats that will be donated to babies born in February at participating hospitals. Donations came in from all over the globe, even coming in from places like South Africa, Europe, and Australia. One winner was chosen to also receive a prize pack from Lion Brand Yarn.

“Prime Publishing has hosted a number of charity drives over the past few years, but nothing comes close to the success of this particular baby hat charity drive,” says AllFreeCrochet editor, Jenny Benoit. “We were expecting around 1,000 hats or so, maybe even less because we were afraid the red color requirement would deter some people from participating. In fact, it did quite the opposite; receiving 6,300 baby hats is far more than we ever expected to receive. Many of the homemade hats we received were also accompanied by a handwritten note from those that have been affected in some way by heart disease. I think the connection with the American Heart Association actually helped motivate people to participate more because they had a personal connection to the cause.”

If you’d still like to donate, there is still time! The American Heart Association will be collecting hats until January 15, 2015. Find additional information here, including hat requirements and where to send your hats. Red yarn donations are also welcome.

FaveQuilts and AllFreeSewing, affiliate craft sites under the Prime Publishing brand, are currently finishing their own joint charity drive, Hands-on-Heart Breast Cancer Pillow Drive, to benefit the American Cancer Society.