Nonprofit donates blankets to Roane County Sheriff's Office for children in need

by: Ella Wales

Posted: Jul 31, 2023 / 11:47 PM EDT

Updated: Aug 1, 2023 / 01:00 AM EDT

ROANE COUNTY, Tenn. (WATE) — The East Tennessee chapter of the nonprofit Project Linus delivered handmade blankets to the Roane County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies will keep the blankets on hand to provide for children going through a hard time. East Tennessee Chapter Coordinator Deb Miller said the goal of Project Linus is to comfort children dealing with all types of struggles.

“We provide handmade blankets to children that are going through a hard time. It might be they’re in the hospital having chemo, they might have been in a car wreck, they might have to be removed from their homes, might have had a fire,” she said.

After a volunteer offered to coordinate the delivery, Miller brought blankets to the Roane County Sheriff’s Office.

“We talked about how they needed to have them packaged so they could keep them in their trunks and have them handy when they needed them, in case they came upon a child that had been in a wreck, or found that was lost, or something like that,” she said.

Miller started as a volunteer with the group in the 1990s and later became the chapter coordinator 20 years ago.

“This was close to my heart because my grandmother always made sure I had a blanket. My father was very sick and he passed away when I was nine, and she was always that person that made sure I had that security blanket, just like Linus always had his security blanket,” she said.

The chapter just recently started working with law enforcement, but volunteers deliver the blankets to children in a number of ways.

“We serve agencies all over East Tennessee, children’s medical centers, the different Covenant hospitals, and children’s advocacy centers throughout the area that work with kids that have been abused,” she said.

Miller said they are available to help whenever a child is in need.

“We take special requests, if there is an individual request, if there’s a shooting or something like that we’ll make sure the children impacted have blankets,” she said.

In addition to making blankets, Miller said those who want to help can donate to fund blanket materials.

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