The Dallas Stand Down is This Month

Published: October 19, 2026  ~   0

Happy Monday, dear T.H.R.I.V.E. Association family. The Dallas VA is one of our longest standing partners and host one of the largest Stand Downs that we are proud to serve. Their Stand Down is taking place this month and we need you, our crafters and donors, to help us reach our goals and accomplish our mission. We need more hats, scarves, mittens, and cotton soap savers. Additionally we need more yarn. The Lion Brand Pound of Love in any of the darker colors are ideal as our staff at T.H.R.I.V.E. HQ can easily make 6 double-thick hats per skein. Please help us reach our goal to provide 400 hand crafted gifts for the veteran community who will be attending this Stand Down.

If you’d like to donate a hat, scarf, mittens, or other handcrafted garment to our cause, please remember that the dear veterans and their dependents prefer dark colors, e.g. blue, black, green, grey, and all-time favorite, camouflage. If you would like to knit, crochet, or sew a garment in a brighter color, red or deep purple are always popular bright colors. We cannot emphasize this important point enough: please do not use sparkly or overly decorative yarns and fabrics. While they have their place, they are simply inappropriate for the veterans and their dependents (including children because of potential choking hazards). 

If you are not a crafter, but would like to help, there are still many ways to support our cause! Please consider donating materials and/or making a monetary donation to help us cover the costs of materials, shipping, and overhead.

If you have donations within Baltimore or the DMV area, please contact us to schedule a pickup. If you reside outside of the Baltimore, MD or the DMV area and would like to make an in-kind donation, you can send your donations to us at:

Care of: Victoria Walker at T.H.R.I.V.E. Association
900 E Fayette St #1583
Baltimore, MD 21233

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us. Remember, even one lovingly handcrafted hat or scarf can make a huge difference in the life of an underprivileged veteran or their dependent(s).

Thank You, WV & KY! Next Stop: TX!

Published: October 12, 2026  ~   0

Happy Monday, dear T.H.R.I.V.E. Association family. We had such a wonderful time serving the homeless military veteran communities at their respective Stand Downs in West Virginia and Kentucky. We still have the Dallas, TX Stand Down coming up this month. It’s one of the largest Stand Downs that we serve and, like West Virginia, is one of our longest partnerships. Please keep those hats, scarves, and mittens coming in; they really do make a huge impact on the morale and comfort of the veterans and their dependents who attend.

If you’d like to donate a hat, scarf, mittens, or other handcrafted garment to our cause, please remember that the dear veterans and their dependents prefer dark colors, e.g. blue, black, green, grey, and all-time favorite, camouflage. If you would like to knit, crochet, or sew a garment in a brighter color, red or deep purple are always popular bright colors. We cannot emphasize this important point enough: please do not use sparkly or overly decorative yarns and fabrics. While they have their place, they are simply inappropriate for the veterans and their dependents (including children because of potential choking hazards). 

If you are not a crafter, but would like to help, there are still many ways to support our cause! Please consider donating materials and/or making a monetary donation to help us cover the costs of materials, shipping, and overhead.

If you have donations within Baltimore or the DMV area, please contact us to schedule a pickup. If you reside outside of the Baltimore, MD or the DMV area and would like to make an in-kind donation, you can send your donations to us at:

Care of: Victoria Walker at T.H.R.I.V.E. Association
900 E Fayette St #1583
Baltimore, MD 21233

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us. Remember, even one lovingly handcrafted hat or scarf can make a huge difference in the life of an underprivileged veteran or their dependent(s).

Goal: 700 Hats and Scarves

Published: September 14, 2026  ~   0

Happy Monday, dear T.H.R.I.V.E. Association family. There are several very large Stand Downs that T.H.R.I.V.E. Association proudly supports that are coming up in quick succession in the upcoming months. Please help us reach our goal of 700 handmade hats and scarves to meet the needs of the homeless military veterans and their dependents who are expected to attend these Stand Downs.

If you’d like to donate a hat, scarf, mittens, or other handcrafted garment to our cause, please remember that the dear veterans and their dependents prefer dark colors, e.g. blue, black, green, grey, and all-time favorite, camouflage. If you would like to knit, crochet, or sew a garment in a brighter color, red or deep purple are always popular bright colors. We cannot emphasize this important point enough: please do not use sparkly or overly decorative yarns and fabrics. While they have their place, they are simply inappropriate for the veterans and their dependents (including children because of potential choking hazards). 

If you are not a crafter, but would like to help, there are still many ways to support our cause! Please consider donating materials and/or making a monetary donation to help us cover the costs of materials, shipping, and overhead.

If you have donations within Baltimore or the DMV area, please contact us to schedule a pickup. If you reside outside of the Baltimore, MD or the DMV area and would like to make an in-kind donation, you can send your donations to us at:

Care of: Victoria Walker at T.H.R.I.V.E. Association
900 E Fayette St #1583
Baltimore, MD 21233

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us. Remember, even one lovingly handcrafted hat or scarf can make a huge difference in the life of an underprivileged veteran or their dependent(s).

We’re Shipping out our Handcrafted Gifts

Published: August 3, 2026  ~   0

Happy Monday, dear T.H.R.I.V.E. Association family! It’s that time of year when our larger partners’ Stand Downs are being held. They have larger homeless veteran communities that they serve, all of whom need our lovingly handcrafted gifts to see them through the colder temperatures. Getting the gifts to their destinations comes dear and we need your monetary support to help us to accomplish our mission. If you are able, please make a tax-deductible monetary donation. Shipping and delivering our gifts costs several hundred dollars per Stand Down, so every dollar really helps us accomplish our goals.

Stand Downs are very effective at helping veterans recover from homelessness, and we love supporting them in their efforts. We have had several veterans who have attended Stand Downs in the past, received our gifts, and are now recovered sufficiently to volunteer/donate to our cause. Let’s keep that momentum going! Our goal is to end homelessness among our nation’s veterans and their dependents and we can’t do it without your support!

Stand Downs are Right Around the Corner!

Published: July 20, 2026  ~   0

Happy Monday, dear T.H.R.I.V.E. Association family! Many of our long-time partner Veteran Administrations around the country are asking for our handcrafted gifts for their upcoming Stand Downs. As usual, we’ve set a goal for ourselves to create the most impact with the help of our very talented crafters. Currently, we need 500 hats, scarves, mittens, etc to meet the needs of our homeless veteran community that will be attending these Stand Downs. If you like crafting for kids, we have requests from multiple VAs for school-aged children sized hats and scarves, and baby buntings with hats for those veterans who either have infants or are expecting. Of course, we would like to exceed these numbers. Many of the VAs ask us for a few extra hats to hand out as the need arises. 

If you’d like to donate a hat, scarf, mittens, or other handcrafted garment to our cause, please remember that the dear veterans and their dependents prefer dark colors, e.g. blue, black, green, grey, and all-time favorite, camouflage. If you would like to knit, crochet, or sew a garment in a brighter color, red or deep purple are always popular bright colors. We cannot emphasize this important point enough: please do not use sparkly or overly decorative yarns and fabrics. While they have their place, they are simply inappropriate for the veterans and their dependents (including children because of potential choking hazards). 

If you are not a crafter, but would like to help, there are still many ways to support our cause! Please consider donating materials and/or making a monetary donation to help us cover the costs of materials, shipping, and overhead.

If you have donations within Baltimore or the DMV area, please contact us to schedule a pickup. If you reside outside of the Baltimore, MD or the DMV area and would like to make an in-kind donation, you can send your donations to us at:

Care of: Victoria Walker at T.H.R.I.V.E. Association
900 E Fayette St #1583
Baltimore, MD 21233

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us. Remember, even one lovingly handcrafted hat or scarf can make a huge difference in the life of an underprivileged veteran or their dependent(s).

We need hats, scarves, and blankets for Anchorage!

Published: June 22, 2026  ~   0

Happy Monday, dear T.H.R.I.V.E. Association family! Our C.E.O. is going back to Anchorage, Alaska for the V.A.’s annual VSO (Veteran Service Organizations) Day on July 15, 2026. We love meeting with the veterans and their families and letting them know that we’re here and how we support them as they recover from homelessness. The Anchorage VA and their veteran community are near and dear to us. Alaska has a very large homeless veteran population and we make it our mission to help reduce those numbers by providing our handmade gifts to the veterans as they work to get back on their feet. 

Our goal is to take at least 150 hats and scarves, and 20 blankets to the Anchorage VA. These gifts are always deeply treasured by the veterans and their dependents. We have heard both from the veterans themselves and also from VA staff and other Community partners that our lovingly handcrafted gifts really do encourage the veterans and make them feel appreciated and loved. Our gifts are more than the sum of the parts; what makes them special is that they are handmade by the T.H.R.I.V.E. Association family of crafters with love and appreciation.

If you don’t craft, but want to help, please make a tax-deductible monetary donation to help cover the travel costs. Alternatively, if you would like to make an in-kind gift, we need Lion Brand Pound of Love yarn. Just one of these one-pound balls of yarn can easily make up to six warm double thick hats!  

A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words

Published: October 27, 2025  ~   0

Happy Monday, dear T.H.R.I.V.E. Association family! The Dallas Stand Down was a phenomenal success and all of your beautifully handcrafted gifts were a huge hit at the event! The veterans and their dependents really treasured them! We want to take this opportunity to express our deepest gratitude to all of our amazing donors, crafters, volunteers, staff, and community partners. Thank you for all that you do to help us achieve our mission.

Great News! You Can Send Donations via UPS & FedEx to Our P.O. Box!

Published: October 20, 2025  ~   0

Happy Monday, dear T.H.R.I.V.E. Association family! The Dallas, TX Stand Down is this week!  It is one of our biggest Stand Downs and one of our long-time partners. Not to show favoritism or anything, but we will always have a soft spot for our hometown! On that note, we are still accepting donations for this event. If you are in the DFW area and would like to donate to our cause, Victoria will be in Dallas the day before the Stand Down, October 22, to collect your lovingly handcrafted gifts. Please reach out as soon as you can so that we can make arrangements for pickup on that day.

We also had a few concerns from our amazing community about sending their donations to our P.O. Box. But never fear – we’ve got you! We’ve done our homework and even did some test runs. We can categorically state that, yes, you can send your amazingly beautiful, handcrafted gifts to our P.O. Box. We want to make donating even easier for you — especially if you’ve ever scratched your head wondering how to send packages to a P.O. Box using UPS or FedEx.

Here’s the scoop: Yes, you absolutely can send donations via UPS and FedEx to our P.O. Box. Thanks to a helpful USPS service called Street Addressing, we’re able to receive both postal mail and packages from private carriers like UPS and FedEx.

How Does It Work, you ask? It’s easy, here’s how:

Instead of writing just “P.O. Box 1583,” you’ll format the address like this:

T.H.R.I.V.E. Association C/O Victoria Walker
900 E Fayette Street #1583
Baltimore, MD 21233

The key is using the physical street address of the post office, followed by our box number preceded by a “#” (not “P.O. Box”).

This tells the driver to deliver it to the post office building, and USPS will place the package safely in our box or hold it for us to pick up.

Why This Is Awesome for our Amazing Donors:

  • More shipping options: Use your favorite carrier or choose the most affordable one.
  • Fewer returned packages: No more “undeliverable” errors from online forms that reject P.O. Boxes.
  • Smoother donations: Especially helpful if you’re mailing bulk items or larger donations.

As always, we are beyond grateful for your kindness, generosity, and support. Every package, every donation, every gesture — it all makes a huge difference in helping us accomplish our mission to end veteran homelessness.

Dallas Stand Down

Published: October 13, 2025  ~   0

Happy Monday, dear T.H.R.I.V.E. Association family. Happy Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
If you are lucky enough to have the day off, today is a fine day to sit in your favorite chair and craft.
The Dallas VA’s Stand Down is coming up next week! They were our first partner Stand Down and we love supporting them in their efforts to end homelessness among their veteran community. Please help us meet our goal of 200 lovingly handcrafted hats and scarves for the veterans and their dependents who will be attending the Dallas Stand Down.

Our Chief Executive Officer, Victoria, will be in Dallas the day before the Stand Down to prepare our booth and to collect donations from our faithful volunteers in the DFW area. If you would like to donate a lovingly handcrafted gift to support our cause to end homelessness among our veteran community, please contact us so that we can make arrangements for a pick up on October 22, 2025.

Calling All Donors

Published: October 6, 2025  ~   0

Happy Monday, dear T.H.R.I.V.E. Association family! The Dallas, TX Stand Down is coming up very soon. We are working tirelessly here at T.H.R.I.V.E. Association headquarters preparing, crafting, and planning for this event.
This is always one of the largest Stand Downs that we partner with, and we love serving the veteran community in attendance. Please help us to meet our goal of 300 lovingly handmade hats, scarves, etc. to provide to our amazing hometown veteran community as they embark on their journey to recover from homelessness.