Help Johnnie Keep 'em Warm this Winter

Hi, I am 'The Man Outside The Box'.

You can call me "Johnnie."

I am a nontraditional man with nontraditional hobbies

I write, cook, bake, create, and often think outside the box.

My newest hobby is knitting winter hats for the homeless.

About three months ago, I set a goal to pick up a knitting machine, learn the ins and out and make 250 winter hats for a homeless support

group in Sudbury and Parry Sound before this Fall.

60ish days in, and we have about 240ish hats!

The goal will be met this week with the help of my sister and other family members.

My family and I have kept me supplied as I have built this stockpile of hats.

So far, we have funded two machines and countless balls of yarn.

I have invested a PILE of hours into this to date.

What we have accomplished so far is fantastic to me.

Which got me thinking,

Why not go bigger?

What could we do with a bit of help?

Here is where you come in...

My journey started for me based on two different events...

In 1999, after the loss of my grandmother, my Mother started dressing up as Mrs.Claus and bringing gifts to nursing home residents on Christmas day.

Soon after, both my parents went as Santa and Mrs.Claus. Essentially funding the gifts on their own, with some help from friends.

After the 2021 Christmas trip, sitting with a friend, my mother said, "I wish we could give all of them a nice warm lap blanket."

With that, her friend made the Facebook group

'Mrs. Claus Lap Quilt Group"

In under 90 days, they met their goal of a lap blanket for every nursing home resident.

Today they have 200ish lap blankets, quilts and shawls with the help of 25-30 helpers.

Their numbers are still growing.

I was inspired

Last year, my Sister and Neice returned to their vehicle after treating themselves and saw a large 150 to 200-person homeless camp in Sudbury, Ontario.

Both the sight and the timing had a tremendous emotional impact on them. They had to do something.

After some research, they found a homeless support group called S.O.S Support Outreach Sudbury.

S.O.S had been assisting the group of people all through the Covid pandemic.

After speaking with S.O.S., they discovered that the demand for assistance was so high that the S.O.S group would often open their doors even

when they had little stock to offer.

My Sister and Neice would regularly speak to people at S.O.S and find out what items were most in need that month

and go to work trying to get those items.

They saved money and collected used clothing from friends, family and coworkers.

In the coming months, they collected and dropped off van

LOADS of water, juice, snack, coats, socks, boots and other needed clothing.

At Christmas, they provided a large gift card for a local store that agreed to sell S.O.S winter gloves at a discount.

Also, my Niece was driving around with a brown paper bag containing a light lunch and canned goods and helpful supplies for those in need on her travels around Sudbury.

Once more,

I was inspired and thinking.

"What could I do?"

Why Sudbury?

Did you know last year, several winter days got down to below

-38 Celsius, -37 Fahrenheit?

My brain has a hard time processing being homeless in those kinds of conditions

It has also been reported that last year at least one busload of the homeless were dropped off

from other regions to survive

in these conditions. I hope that to be untrue because that cold-heartedness is unthinkable to me.

I have no idea what the homeless numbers are this year, but I know one thing.

Times keep getting tougher and more challenging, and I can't see the homeless numbers dropping right now.

If anything, I could see them growing.

So many of us are honestly only one or two dire circumstances out of our control away from being in their shoes.

A health issue, a layoff or job loss, a death in the family, a rent increase, sudden loss of a rental unit by anything,

fire or a greedy landlord just wanting more.

There are so many out-of-our-control circumstances that could put us on their path.

These are the times we live in...

What are my goals, and how will funds be used?

By the time this campaign goes live, I will have already met my 2022 goal of 250 hats YAY!!!!

I currently have two knitting machines.

They are both lower-end machines; the first one already has gearing issues from overuse.

I would like to raise between $1500 to $2500

With that money, I would like to purchase two new knitting machines of better quality.

Also, with that money, I would like to expand into making both knitted scarves and knitted ear warmers for winter 2023.

So I would need to purchase supplies for doing this.

These are our goals, and this is how we would use the funds.

There is both a Facebook page,

'The Man Outside The Box'

and an Instagram page

'man_outside_thebox'

so people can see our growth

and the progression of these goals.

I am thinking of, at some point, selling some of the hats to help pay for other supplies for the homeless, like, socks, underwear and snacks n such. I am not sure I am ready for that just yet. I like the idea of making this self-sufficient as well.

One step at a time, and this is the next step.

Don't hesitate to contact me if you have any tips, tricks, or nonmonetary assistance.

Thank you for your time

Thank you for your possible support

Thank you for helping me; help them.

Much love & gratitude,

The Man Outside The Box, aka Johnnie.