Blanket Diplomacy
Hobby turns into an international act of kindness
Stella Warschauer would like to change the world, one baby blanket at a time. At 91, Stella has spent a few years crocheting the blankets for friends and family, but now she has a loftier goal: to distribute at least one of her blankets to every country in the world as an international display of American kindness.
From her home in Westerville, Ohio, Stella has crocheted approximately 375 baby blankets over the past several years. She intends to reach 500, including at least one blanket for each of the 195 countries of the world.
Each blanket takes about 12 hours to complete. Most have been given as gifts over the years. Stella had started a list of locations where these blankets had ended up, and an idea was born. At first her goal was to give one to someone in each of the 50 states in the U.S. It took several years to accomplish, but this milestone was finally reached. Then Stella broadened her sights.
Lurking in the back of her mind for a long time was the idea of the “ugly American.” Stella wondered if she could change that view with something as simple as a crocheted baby blanket. “What if I could find a way to give a baby blanket to someone in every country of the world… and my goodness, how many would that be?” she asked herself. The U.N. counts 195 countries in the world today. Stella believed this mission was obtainable, but how would she find the families to give her blankets to? With the help of her own family, the operation was launched.
One daughter, Vickie, a nursing instructor, asked friends whose summers were free to travel if they would give a baby blanket to someone in whatever country they were visiting. Another daughter, Sanibel resident Linda Warschauer, was trav
eling the world for work, so she started delivering baby blankets wherever she went. The list began to grow, and several countries soon had a Stella blanket keeping a child warm at night.
Stella and her daughter drafted a letter to go along with each baby blanket explaining why it was being donated and asking the recipient to send a picture of the baby with the blanket. They have received many pictures, along with the stories that accompany them. This is one of the best parts of the project, says Stella, seeing and reading about the children who are wrapped up in her blankets.
Linda relates one story where a blanket was almost lost in translation. When she and her husband, Ken Burgener, were on a cruise, their room steward was from Montenegro, a country that had not yet received a Stella blanket. Linda explained to him what her mother
Lurking in the back of her mind for a long time was the idea of the “ugly American.” Stella wondered if she could change that view with something as simple as a crocheted baby blanket.
Afghanistan Algeria
Andorra
Angola
Antigua and Barbuda Armenia
Austria Azerbaijan Bahrain
Benin
Bolivia
Burkina Faso Burundi
Cape Verde Central African Republic Chad
Comoros
Congo
Côte d'Ivoire Djibouti
East Timor
Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Eswatini Ethiopia Gabon Gambia Georgia Grenada Guinea-Bissau Israel Kazakhstan Kiribati Korea Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Lebanon Liberia
Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania
Luxembourg Malawi Malaysia Maldives
Mali Marshall Islands Mauritania Micronesia Moldova Mongolia Mozambique Nauru Nigeria Northern Ireland Oman Pakistan Palestine (Disputed) Qatar Rwanda Samoa
San Marino
São Tomé and Príncipe Saudi Arabia Senegal Seychelles Solomon Islands Somalia Suriname Switzerland
Syria
Tajikistan
Togo
Tonga Turkmenistan Tuvalu
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates Uruguay
Vanuatu
Vatican City Western Sahara (Disputed) Yemen