Quacking For A Cause

Attention all crafters!! Whether you knit, sew or crochet, or even if you don't do any of those things, here's a wonderful way to get involved in spreading word of a great cause without much effort at all. I like projects that don't require a lot of effort.

I recently heard about "The Little Yellow Duck Project" and it really appealed to me. Let me give you a little background. It was started by a woman in the UK in honor of her best friend. Her friend died last year at the age of 26 while waiting for an organ transplant. There was no matching organ available and her friend wanted to get out the word about blood, bone marrow, organ and tissue donation. The girl had collected all things ducky, so The Little Yellow Duck Project was born.

This is how it works. We make a duck. Simple. We can knit one or sew one or sculpt one or whatever  we choose to do. It doesn't even have to be yellow. There are even patterns provided on the site and they don't require much in time or materials.

Next we attach one of the project tags, also provided on the site, to the duck and leave the creature somewhere, anywhere. It can be in a park, on a beach, on a store shelf, at a library or at the gym, anywhere that a stranger will find it. The person who finds it can take it home and go to the site as instructed on the tag to leave their location on the big map. So far ducks have been found in the USA, UK, Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand, Australia, Norway, Ireland, South Africa, Abu Dhabi, Serbia and the Philippines.

The idea is to make the finder smile and become aware of the need for blood and organ donors. To learn more about this sweet but important project, go to the website, The Little Yellow Duck Project.org  There is also a group on Ravelry with info and discussion for all you knitters

I'm going to knit a duck tonight but I also have a couple of little rubber duckies that I bought on sale a few years ago. They've been sitting in the closet waiting for a purpose in life.  I'll tag them and leave them for someone to find. I think we can all use a smile these days.