(The launch was held
at the SA Embassy in Washington, DC)
To commemorate the second anniversary of Madiba’s passing,
the United States chapter of 67 Blankets for Nelson Mandela Day formally launched
the initiative at the South African Embassy in Washington, DC on December 4 2015.
Carolyn Steyn, 67 Blankets founder and “arts angel”,
is in the US capital and attended the event, which will see this
award-winning and record-breaking “good-wool” campaign extend its reach and
influence even further.
Hosted by South Africa’s ambassador to the US, Mninwa
Mahlangu, the event saw blankets being laid at Mandela’s statue outside the SA
Embassy as well as performances by children from the ORR Elementary School (the
SA Embassy’s adopted school under the DC Public Schools Embassy Adoption
Programme).
To say 67 Blankets for Nelson Mandela Day has been a
juggernaut would be an understatement.
To date, thousands of blankets have been knitted, sewn,
quilted or crocheted since Madiba’s trusted assistant, Zelda le Grange, issued
a challenge to Steyn after her beloved former boss’s passing on December 5, 2013.
This was to create 67 blankets (one for each year of public service by the
great man) before Nelson Mandela Day, July 18, 2014, to be distributed to those
in need as winter took hold.
Steyn took up the cudgels and turned a modest challenge into
a mushrooming philanthropic movement, chalking up a Guinness World Record (for
the largest area covered by a blanket – 3,377m2 – when all the blankets were
laid side by side at the Union Buildings in April 2015) and winning an ANN7
award for Campaign of the Year.
Men, women and children, businesses and even prisoners around
the country have risen to the challenge and crafted blankets to donate to those
in need at institutions such as old-age homes, homeless shelters, children’s
homes and outreach organisations.
Even “knitwits” as far afield as Nigeria, Australia, Belgium,
Canada, Germany, Cyprus, London and India have bought in to this initiative
with enthusiasm, spreading the Madiba magic to those in need. Friday marks the
official launch of 67 Blankets in the US capital – a fitting tribute to the
great leader and statesman and an extension of his legacy, two years after his
death.
For more information about 67 Blankets for Nelson Mandela
Day, visit www.67blankets.co.za
or visit www.nelsonmandela.org
to find out more about International Nelson Mandela Day.
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