Handmade Brigade Inc

Handmade Brigade's mission is to thank our military personnel and Veterans for their service to our country through the gift of handcrafted winter hats and scarves. Our items are all lovingly made by volunteers across the USA using only American-made yarns and materials. We are honored to support America's troops and Veterans with warmth and gratitude.

Over the past three years, we have built a network of talented craftspeople from across the country -- knitters and crocheters with the desire to give back to the brave men and women of our Armed Forces. We have connected with many people through social media, where there is a very active crafting community, and have also started reaching out to local civic organizations, churches and retirement communities to grow our volunteer base even more.

We have also had the good fortune to connect with a number of other nonprofits to grow awareness of the need for increased support of our military and Veteran communities as well as expanding into new regions for the donation of our items (i.e. military personnel deployed to overseas combat zones).

In three short years, Handmade Brigade has grown from a single volunteer knitter to a team of more than a dozen talented knitters and crocheters spanning from Maine to California, with more volunteer inquiries coming in each month. The more volunteers we have, the more items we receive and the more troops and Veterans we can support with our handmade warmth and gratitude.

We have also worked hard to reach out to individual donors via social media and through local community events. In 2018, we were able to increase our donations 1224% from 2017.

Over the past three years, Handmade Brigade has made and donated:
* scarves to the crew of a U.S. Navy submarine, the USS Virginia
* hats to Marines deploying from Camp Pendleton
* hats and scarves to Warriors Warehouse - a nonprofit in Fort Carson, Colorado, that supports local homeless/at-risk Veterans and low-income military families
* hats for the Oscar Mike Militia - the only all-Veteran wheelchair rugby team in the U.S.
* hats for Veterans at the Denver VA Hospital as part of a holiday gift event