Morristown High School Theatre Delivers Donations to Project Linus

Morristown, NJ—Morristown High School Theatre delivered four bags of blankets and blanket-making supplies to Project Linus last week. The supplies—which included yarn, fabric, sewing supplies, and a couple of Michaels gift cards—were donated by theatergoers who attended last month’s MHS production of Fiddler on the Roof, a critical and box-office smash for the student-run program.

Project Linus is a non-profit organization that provides handmade blankets to children 18 and under in the United States who are “seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need.” Inspired by the character of Motel the tailor in Fiddler, MHS Theatre encouraged members of the program, friends, family, and show attendees to donate homemade no-sew blankets and supplies for Project Linus at each of the four performances of Fiddler on the Roof.

Sisters Abby and Caroline Higgins made last week’s delivery of the collected donations to the Hunterdon and Warren Counties branch of Project Linus in Bloomsbury, New Jersey. Abby, a graduating senior, is MHS Theatre’s head of community outreach, while Caroline, a freshman at the high school, joined the outreach team in this, her first year in the MHS Theatre program.

“I have been watching my sister's efforts in community and educational outreach since her sophomore year of high school,” says Caroline. “I have seen her grow this program into the award-nominated one that it is today, and, from watching her, I, too, have grown a passion for helping the community. She has shown us how to go above and beyond expectations and what effort and hard work can do.”

Indeed, Abby was recently nominated for Montclair State University’s Foxy Award for Educational Impact and Community Outreach for her work on both last fall’s dramatic production of Little Women and MHS Theatre’s spring 2025 musical production of Les Misérables, just as she was for 2024’s Mary Poppins and Shakespeare in Love. Higgins has also twice been nominated for Paper Mill Playhouse’s Rising Star Award for Educational Impact (for Mary Poppins and Les Misérables). (Award nominations for Fiddler on the Roof are still pending.)

The delivery coincided with Project Linus’s “Make a Blanket Day” workshop, at which volunteers, including the Higgins sisters, made 213 blankets to donate to children in need. For Abby, who will be attending Elizabethtown College in the fall to pursue a major in occupational therapy, the visit to Project Linus was a rewarding conclusion to her time as MHS Theatre’s Community Outreach.

“Seeing the amount of participation in the blanket-making when we visited filled me with hope and gratitude,” said Abby. “It reminded me of the reason I wanted to be in charge of the Community Outreach branch of MHS Theatre—to utilize the arts to help as many people as I can.”