For 19 years, nonprofit has shown foster children that somebody cares

With her three children drifting to sleep in their cribs and toddler bed, Jessica Hollins sat in a rocking chair in the youngsters’ shared nursery, wanting them to feel her presence.

By the glow of night lights and with music playing softly, she knitted a blanket for the little ones.

It was in that moment of serenity that Hollins (who recently remarried and is now Jessica Rudolph) had a revelation about her knitting project: “I thought: ‘They don’t need another blanket. Who should I make this for?’”

The answer to that question inspired her life’s work.

Rudolph’s babies are now 19, 20 and 21, and, almost two decades later, My Very Own Blanket has donated more than 100,000 handmade blankets to children in A personalized tag featuring the name of the maker and the recipient is sewn onto a finished blanket.