Memorial Blankets — 2023

Yesterday was the shortest day of the year in terms of sunlight. Others refer to it as the longest night of the year. Regardless of your preference, to me, December 21 is about blankets. But not just any blankets — blankets that carry a ton of meaning and significance.

Thursday, December 21, 2023 was the third annual Memorial Blanket Project art installation. In 2021, it was hosted in Carlisle, PA. Last year we moved it to the West Lawn of the US Capitol. (Click the links to see pictures from previous years) And this year, it was hosted at the PA Capitol.

As with each year, we never know how many blankets we will have, who is going to show up to help out, or what the weather will be like. And each year more blankets than we guess show up, volunteers come out of the woodwork, and the weather is amazing.

Here’s some lessons that I took away from this year.

Lesson 1 — This just keeps growing each year, which is amazing. It takes on a life of its own and that’s a good thing. The first year we had over 200 blankets for an event that was pretty local in focus. Last year we made the leap to a national stage at the US Capitol, and we were not disappointed. There were 1174 blankets from 42 states. This year, we brought the installation back to PA, but worked in conjunction with partners in Akron, OH, who also had an installation of…