Category: Uncategorized
The Great Knitting Giveaway – Reinvented!
For over 15 years, the Great Knitting Giveaway has connected GEF seniors and local charities through a common desire to help Edmontonians in need. Our talented knitters have given countless hours to create thousands of scarves, toques, blankets, and mitts for charities such as Hope Mission, The Mennonite Centre for Newcomers, and Crystal Kids Youth Centre.
The one-day event has traditionally been an opportunity for charities to come pick up items that have been lovingly stitched by GEF seniors, and for the knitters to collect their yarn for next year’s projects. Year after year, individuals in the community have generously donated yarn for this cause.
At the October 2022 Great Knitting Giveaway, for example, GEF donated 5,240 items to local charities and received nearly 4,000 skeins of yarn in donations.
A New Vision for the Great Knitting Giveaway
Through previous event feedback, knitters expressed a desire to see where their items were going and possibly meet the people receiving them through more intimate and regular meetings. Instead of the previous one day giving event, our knitters now take the initiative to reach out to charities individually, find out what the specific needs are and then focus on weaving love and time into creating warm items to donate.
With this new focus of allowing knitters to tailor their projects according to the specific needs of the charities they choose to work with, meaningful connections are being made in the community between the knitters and recipients.
Weaving Connections Within the Community
In 2024, Knitters from GEF Rosslyn Place visited Operation Friendship Seniors Society to help sort donations at their distribution site and see the impact of their donated knitted items. Click here to see the story on YouTube.
The dedicated knitting group from GEF Rosslyn Place donated warm winter woolies to the Salvation Army.
In 2025, our GEF Rosslyn and Sakaw communities visited Crystal Kids Youth Centre to donate their creations and join the seniors’ breakfast.
The Great Knitting Giveaway 2026 continues with even more opportunities throughout the year to connect with charities in need. Stay tuned for regular updates of the many knitting projects in the works and on their way to impacting more charitable organizations who need them.
Donate Yarn, Make a Difference!
The Life Enrichment Team supplies knitters with yarn on demand throughout the year and is readily accepting new, unused, sturdy, and washable yarn to continue the Great Knitting Giveaway efforts. Our various collection points in Edmonton are:
West Central: Central Services, 14220 – 109 Avenue
Southside: Ottewell Place Lodge, 6207 – 92 Avenue
Northside: Rosslyn Place Lodge, 10915 – 134 Avenue
If you have any questions about yarn donations, please call 587-404-8726 or email jbisch@gef.org.
Beautiful outdoor spaces for a better quality of life.
It is well known that access to gardens, plant life, and nature can support the mental health and physical well-being of all individuals. Well-maintained grounds also serve as spaces for people to mingle and gather, which can lead to a reduction of loneliness and social isolation. Ensuring residents and tenants continue to have access to restorative outdoor spaces is a priority for GEF Seniors Housing and why Planting Days is so vital to our organization!
Corporate Donors show up big for Planting Days.
This Spring GEF provided the opportunity for Corporate Donors, groups, and individuals to support Planting Days and Adopt-a-Garden events at many of our senior living communities.
It was a great opportunity for residents, their families and friends, our staff, volunteers, and our partners in the community to come together for one day to beautify the communal spaces around several properties.
Plants were provided by our friends at The Big Greenhouse at a significant discount, and many of our corporate donors not only volunteered for the day but also covered the cost of the plants for a site as a donation. Our heartfelt thanks for this generosity!
Front Yards In Bloom nomination!
One exciting outcome from Planting Days was our own Montgomery Place being nominated for a Front Yards in Bloom Award! The volunteer involvement from Telus and Telecon was spectacular with nearly 30 volunteers eager to work alongside staff and tenants at Montgomery. All of the digging, weeding, and planting from the team at Montgomery Place produced serene and rejuvenating spaces for residents to gather with each other and their families and friends. We need your vote for our nomination! Please vote for Montgomery Place’s front yard by visiting the City of Edmonton’s Front Yards in Bloom page. Voting takes place between August 14 – 18, 2023.
We also want to extend a special thanks to Telecom for recently donating a new hedge trimmer to the Montgomery Place site simply because they heard from the tenants that one was needed! This donation does more than keep our grounds tidy – it further proves the sense of connection and community between our residents and our corporate partners.
Help is needed for the whole summer season.
In addition to a one-time Planting Day, there are also opportunities for continued participation by assisting in the maintenance (weeding, watering, trimming, etc.) of the spaces throughout the season or for the end-of-fall garden clean up. Participating in maintaining green spaces is a great opportunity to connect, give back, and assist us in our mission to positively influence seniors’ quality of life. If your organization is interested in helping out, please contact us!
Thank you to the following corporate donors for their contributions to Planting Days!
Telus
Telecon
Tru North Restoration
Telsco
Source Office Furnishings
Ecopest
The Big Greenhouse