100 Airplanes


KidKnits is about people, not statistics.  Our founder, my daughter, started KidKnits because she wanted to “change a life on the other side of the world”, not solve world poverty.  And yet, as we go into classrooms and talk about extreme poverty in the world, we believe it is important for students to understand the unbelievable scale of the problem of world poverty without feeling overwhelmed.  We recently read Richard Stearn’s excellent book, The Hole in Our Gospel.  We were struck by Richard’s analogy for understanding the scale of poverty in Africa, and thought that students in our classes would be as well.  Richard asks us to imagine that tomorrow morning the newspaper headline reads, “100 Airliners Crash, 26,500 killed”.  Certainly this headline would be the top story, certainly it would impact us all day as we struggled to imagine the magnitude of the tragedy - 100 plane crashes on the same day!  However, what if we awoke the following day only to find that it had happened again, and the next day, again, and on and on.  This tragic loss of innocent life mirrors the daily situation in Africa, where 26,500 children die each day of preventable disease!  As we discussed this analogy this week with a group of 5th and 6th graders, we realized that we all would have an immediate reaction of shock at the tragedy.  And yet, some of the students agreed that if this truly were to go on for weeks and months, we may eventually become numb to the situation.  Is that what has happened with respect to extreme poverty in Africa?  If 100 airplanes were crashing daily, would not every resource possible be focused on solving this problem?  Why do we not do more to address this tragedy?  

As I wrote at the beginning of this post, KidKnits is not about statistics, but about people.   KidKnits is  a family project, - my wife, my dad, my mom, my kids, and me.  How can my small family change the 26,500 number?  The number is so large and so far away.  The number that inspired my family and me to focus our time and efforts on KidKnits was  10.   Using KidKnits to give an opportunity for 10 women to have work through our partner, True Vineyard Ministries.  Ten women.  Now, thanks to you, our customers, the original 10 is now 28.  28 women.  28 families.  175 family members.  A plane crash?  Perhaps, a plane crash averted.   Lives on the other side of the world changed - by a simple, fun and meaningful craft. Thank you for being a part of this change.

Bradley University Fellows Team Up with KidKnits

We at KidKnits are very excited about a developing relationship with Bradley University, especially the Leadership and Public Service Fellows Program.  Through this program, 15 students are selected each year to be a part of this scholarship program based on their outstanding volunteer records.  We were invited by Katie McGinn, Director of the Burger Center to speak to the Fellows group in January, and we were very pleased that after hearing the KidKnits story, three of the fellows volunteered to work with KidKnits.  We have benefited greatly already from their energy and creativity,  Kristen Jensen is working on our retail presence, and has already brought forward several new ideas to improve our retail packaging and presence.   Matt Sullivan and Nicole Carey are working with us on the curriculum development and education side of KidKnits.  This week they had their first experience in a classroom with KidKnits, and their excitement for the project is infectious.  Thanks to Bradley University for attracting such impressive young citizens and for allowing them an opportunity to help change the world with KidKnits.

We truly had an amazing experience at Lincoln Elementary School in Canton.  All of the 4th graders have now completed their KidKnits hats!  While in Canton, we had the opportunity to share with two different fourth grade classes the entire KidKnits curriculum.  The students learned about world poverty, learned some Kinyarwanda, participated in an original play for KidKnits exploring life in Rwanda for some of the TVM widows before and after their employment making yarn, and learned how sheep’s wool is converted into yarn!  Most importantly, through making their own hats with KidKnits yarn, each student made a difference in a life on the other side of the world. 

We will be publishing a full report on this KidKnits pilot program.  Please contact us with questions or for more information!

How exciting it was to see our founder, Ellie, featured in the Feb/March issue of the great girls’ magazine, Kiki!  The article captured the spirit of KidKnits exactly, and it was awesome to see the beautiful photography of Abbey Henderson in the pages of Kiki!

We feel so fortunate to have Laity Lodge Family Camp as a partner for KidKnits.  Our family has gone to family camp the last two summers there and have found it to be an amazing place for a family retreat.  This Christian family camp in the hill country of Central Texas has been exactly what we needed.  This summer, while at camp, we had the opportunity to share the story of Ellie and KidKnits with some of the camp leadership, and they immediately started looking for a way of bringing the yarn into a family craft project.  While knit hats aren’t an ideal family project, especially in 100 degree heat, the team at LLFC was determined to share the KidKnits message with their campers and use the yarn in some way.  We love the craft that they created, and feel so blessed to be a small part of the family camp experience! View high resolution

We feel so fortunate to have Laity Lodge Family Camp as a partner for KidKnits.  Our family has gone to family camp the last two summers there and have found it to be an amazing place for a family retreat.  This Christian family camp in the hill country of Central Texas has been exactly what we needed.  This summer, while at camp, we had the opportunity to share the story of Ellie and KidKnits with some of the camp leadership, and they immediately started looking for a way of bringing the yarn into a family craft project.  While knit hats aren’t an ideal family project, especially in 100 degree heat, the team at LLFC was determined to share the KidKnits message with their campers and use the yarn in some way.  We love the craft that they created, and feel so blessed to be a small part of the family camp experience!

Since we started selling KidKnits kits, we’ve been looking for a way of allowing people to make their finished hats uniquely KidKnits.  This past summer, when we were in Kenya, we learned of a group, called Uhunzi, that makes amazing tags out of recycled aluminum, and we wondered if this could be our answer.  After learning much more about the story of these tags, we were certain we had found our answer.  The raw material for the tags is scrap aluminum, collected from around the slums of Nairobi.  All of their molds are made from sand which is a by-product from glass making.  Their furnace is powered by recycled engine oil.  They have five employees from around Kenya.  Finally, they produce a beautiful hand-stamped product, which will soon be included in all KidKnits kits!

Bringing KidKnits to your Classroom

One of the two primary missions of KidKnits is educating American youth.  We believe that through our simple craft, we are uniquely positioned to bring some very important messages to American youth.  First, it is important for all of our children to be aware of poverty in the world - that many kids worldwide do not have access to opportunities that our children may take for granted.  Second, that we are all called to help those who are in need of help.  Finally, and most importantly, that independent of age, we all can make a difference.  KidKnits was founded upon Ellie’s belief that “You’re never too young to make a difference”.

In order to accomplish this educational mission, we at KidKnits have been working very hard on developing a curriculum that, when paired with the craft kit, can be brought directly into a classroom and teach these very important lessons, while aligning with grade level core curriculum requirements.  We have been fortunate to work with some incredibly talented curriculum development experts, and are nearly finished developing five modules.

We are also very fortunate to have two very dedicated pilot partners signed up and ready to bring KidKnits into their classroom.  One is a local private Christian school, the other is a public school.  In one case we will be working with fifth graders, in the other with fourth graders.  While we are very excited about these two pilot programs, we would love to have a third pilot partner.  If you are a parent, teacher or school administrator, please contact us to learn more.

KidKnits is excited to announce the debut of a new yarn color, courtesy of our partners at True Vineyard Ministries!  The new color is called Dejina, and is a deep shade of green.  It is dyed with a leafy plant called Dejina in Kinyarwanda.  While I don’t know the exact name of the plant in English, I can tell you that when we were in Rwanda this summer, Everiste was experimenting with the Dejina dyeing, and the plant smells like spinach when boiled!  The new color will be available for purchase on our website this November, but the first place it will be available for sale is at the KidKnits trunk show event at Ten Thousand Villages on Sunday, October 9, from 1pm to 5pm! View high resolution

KidKnits is excited to announce the debut of a new yarn color, courtesy of our partners at True Vineyard Ministries!  The new color is called Dejina, and is a deep shade of green.  It is dyed with a leafy plant called Dejina in Kinyarwanda.  While I don’t know the exact name of the plant in English, I can tell you that when we were in Rwanda this summer, Everiste was experimenting with the Dejina dyeing, and the plant smells like spinach when boiled! 

The new color will be available for purchase on our website this November, but the first place it will be available for sale is at the KidKnits trunk show event at Ten Thousand Villages on Sunday, October 9, from 1pm to 5pm!

Ten Thousand Villages!

KidKnits is very excited about our upcoming trunk show at Austin’s Ten Thousand Villages store.  Ten Thousand Villages is the premier fair trade store in Austin, and they have been so gracious to host this event for us.  What can people expect if they come by the store at 1317 S. Congress Avenue between 1:00 and 5:00 on Sunday October 9?

  • Meet KidKnits founder Ellie and her dad, Steve, who is currently working as Executive Director of KidKnits
  • Meet Diana Wiley, Executive Director of True Vineyard Ministries, our partner who employs all 21 widows in Rwanda and is the source of all of the KidKnits yarn!
  • Learn how to knit your own KidKnits hat, with knitting demonstrations all afternoon long.
  • Take in the amazing photography of Abbey Henderson, who traveled this summer to Rwanda with KidKnits and True Vineyard Ministries and caught the whole trip on film!
  • Pick up a kit for a birthday present, a Christmas present, or for yourself!  Or, buy some fair-trade yarn for the knitter in your life, knowing that each ball supports one widow in Rwanda and her family for one day!
  • Enter a raffle to win a free KidKnits hat!
  • Learn more about other fair trade products and partners of Ten Thousand Villages, and browse their store.

It’s an afternoon you won’t soon forget.

Perhaps no single photo from our recent trip to Rwanda better captures what KidKnits is all about than this one, for many different reasons. First, one of Ellie’s favorite parts of the trip was playing with the children of the women working for TVM’s, particularly with Diana, Febrice, and Clemonce.  Second, while KidKnits and TVM’s partnership is about employing widows, the generational change sought through these initiatives is really about these beautiful children.  Finally, while our craft kits start with yarn, the vision is that the yarn is made into hats, beautifully modeled here. View high resolution

Perhaps no single photo from our recent trip to Rwanda better captures what KidKnits is all about than this one, for many different reasons. First, one of Ellie’s favorite parts of the trip was playing with the children of the women working for TVM’s, particularly with Diana, Febrice, and Clemonce.  Second, while KidKnits and TVM’s partnership is about employing widows, the generational change sought through these initiatives is really about these beautiful children.  Finally, while our craft kits start with yarn, the vision is that the yarn is made into hats, beautifully modeled here.