Warm Up America! COVID-19 Update & More!

*UPDATE June 1:

Warm Up America! is now accepting donations again. Please see our Current Needs page for our most updated list of needs and our mailing address.

*UPDATE March 23:

Warm Up America! has a very important announcement. We have been closely monitoring COVID-19 as it continues to spread around the Dallas area and around the country. Yesterday, Dallas County officials issued a shelter-in-place order that goes into effect this evening and lasts until April 3. In an abundance of caution and to protect our staff and volunteers, we have made the difficult decision to close our Warm Up America! office and stop all operations until further notice. We ask that you continue making donations but hold onto them until we announce that we are taking donations again. We will continue to post updates on this situation via our website, social media and email newsletters, so stay tuned for any other announcements and important information. We thank you for your cooperation and flexibility as we navigate all of the changes we’ve had to make recently. We wish health and safety to you and your family and look forward to receiving your donations again soon!

Update: How we’re handling COVID-19

Warm Up America! would like to thank all of our volunteers for your continuous support and encouragement of our mission and especially during this time. We are still accepting your donations in the midst of the pandemic our country is facing right now. Below are the steps we’re taking to address COVID-19 and to make sure that our staff, volunteers and recipients remain safe and healthy:

We are letting all boxes sit for one week before opening to minimize chances of anything remaining on boxes
All staff and volunteers are wearing gloves when opening and handling boxes
Office surfaces are disinfected at the end of each day
We will have no Unboxing for the next several weeks
Stay tuned to our Facebook page for updates!

We appreciate your flexibility during this time. The situation changes every day and sometimes every hour, so we will let you know if there is any new information (such as when we will start Unboxing again) by posting on our Warm Up America! Facebook page and by sending out email newsletters.

Sweet Tooth Hotel Update

Thank you so much to everyone who sent in sections for our Sweet Tooth Hotel Section Drive! Our deadline was Wednesday and we are so excited to announce that so far we have received 5,632 sections! Everyone’s been doing a great job sending in sections and we’re so thankful for the response we’ve been getting. Here are the totals so far for each color:

Red: 1,439
Yellow: 1,462
Green: 1,328
Teal: 1,403

In other Sweet Tooth Hotel news, unfortunately the April 18 opening of Intangible has been postponed indefinitely as the City of Dallas has issued a Disaster Declaration due to COVID-19. The plan right now is to open sometime in summer 2020, but we do not have an exact date yet. Check out this letter from Sweet Tooth Hotel founder Jencey Keeton about the decision to postpone the Intangible opening.

In light of the Intangible opening being postponed, we will not be extending the Sweet Tooth section deadline. After going through the sections we have, we realize that we have enough. We will continue to open what we have and you can still send what you’ve already made, but please don’t start any more Sweet Tooth sections. You can go back to making regular sections in all colors or making items for any of our other campaigns.

Stay tuned to our Facebook page for updates on the Sweet Tooth Hotel opening and to see your amazing sections in action!

Box of 500 Program Changes

We wanted to let you know about a new change we are implementing in the Box of 500 program to help Warm Up America! with the rising cost of shipping. Going forward, we are asking all volunteers receiving a Box of 500 to contribute a $40 donation to help us cover the cost of shipping the box to you. The average cost of shipping a Box of 500 to a volunteer is $40, which does not include the cost of our labor or the box. As a nonprofit, we operate within a limited budget and as we continue to grow, we have to look for new ways to both fundraise and keep our costs low. Our Warm Up America! Coordinator April will be in contact with volunteers who are currently on the list to receive a box of sections and will ask you to make your donation before we ship the box to you. We hope that you understand this necessary change in our program. We could not fulfill our mission without your help!

New Knit Picks + WeCrochet Partnership

Knit Picks is teaming up with its sister brand WeCrochet to encourage its community to craft for a cause. They are supporting Warm Up America! and encouraging donations to our organization. To participate, knit or crochet any of the following:

7″ x 9″ squares (any gauge, any stitch)
Finished blankets, from throw and lapghan size and larger
Or choose from WUA!’s list of current needs

You can check out more details about the partnership on the Knit Picks blog here: https://blog.knitpicks.com/warm-up-together-with-knit-picks-and-wecrochet/

3 replies added

Irene ebert March 20, 2020 Reply

I fully agree with all your decisions!! Hope all the joiners will agree to the $40; seems only fair as most of us makers spend $$ to ship the items and/or rectangles to WUA!! Know lot of joiners donate locally too so they save postage that way too!! Stay safe all of you and look forward to the live unboxing when you resume it!!!
Leanne October 6, 2020 Reply

Are you accepting donations now (10/6) or are you still not accepting them due to Corona restrictions?
- Sarah Guenther-Moore October 26, 2020 Reply
  
  Hi Leanne! Sorry we’re just now seeing your comment. Yes, we began accepting items again in June. You may send in items as soon as you have them ready and we will take them! 🙂

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