Kids send messages of hope to those in need

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on February 1, 2025.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

Students and staff at The Children of St. Martha Elementary School are once again sharing hope and warmth through their seventh annual Blankets of Hope campaign.
This year, the students gathered in the school’s gymnasium and were able to have a video-call with the two brothers who started the Blankets of Hope, an educational non-profit organization based in Brooklyn, NY.
In 2016, Mike and Nick Fiorito quit their 9-5 jobs in search of more meaningful work and after many failed ideas, they started the Blankets of Hope, to spread kindness to those who are on the street, one blanket and one message of hope at a time.
While talking to the students and staff, the brothers recalled that this year is their seventh year sending the blankets to the school for kids to create messages of hope for those in need within the community.
They said the kids at The Children of St. Martha Elementary School go above and beyond in making people feel loved and special.
They shared with the students that to date, they have distributed close 400,000 blankets which continues to bring them closer to their goal of a million blankets by 2030.
“But the real mission behind what we’re doing with Blankets of Hope is to inspire a global movement of kindness,” said the brothers.
They explained that with every student who participates, every handwritten letter that is created and every blanket of hope that is donated, what they are really doing is creating a ripple of kindness that they hope continues to spread far and wide, one act of kindness at a time.
“Mike and I discovered this model that the secret of living is giving and that is exactly what you are all about to do, you are about to start giving back to your community,” said Nick.
After that, the brothers counted down from three to one and the students all screamed “The secret of living is giving,” just before they began to work on their messages of hope that subsequently were attached to the blankets after being rolled up.
Kindergarten teacher Laurie McIntosh, who has been spearheading the Blankets of Hope kindness workshop for the past seven years, said this year is very special because the students who are in Grade 6 have been taking part of BOH since Kindergarten and will be leaving a legacy behind.
“Seven years in and we’re still the only school in Canada who gets the blankets for free,” she said. “Blankets of Hope every year chooses us to send free blankets.”
The program has changed a bit since the Fiorito brothers first started and they ask for schools to fundraise or start a GoFundMe to obtain the blankets. But not Children of St. Martha.
“They are aware that, for our community, that wasn’t going to work, and they’ve said ‘never will we ever charge you for these blankets,'” said McIntosh.
The Fioritos have told her that they want the school to have the blankets every year, because they know how impactful they are, and they have heard beautiful stories fromthe community. Because of that, they’ll continue to share the blankets with the school for as long as the school will take them.
McIntosh said that as people have watched the journey of the Blankets of Hope, different groups have reached out, some inquiring about the project, while others askt how to get the blankets.
“This year Girl Gang YQL is here, which, based on organic collaborations we decided to blend in and come together as they focus on kindness and we were doing a giant kindness exercise in our gym,” said McIntosh.
Stephanie Wierl, a member of Girl Gang, explained that they are a group of six friends who were looking for ways to give back to the community and just spread some of those ripples of kindness around.
“All of us have worked in not-for-profits in some way, shape or form over our careers.” said Wierl. “And we’re just looking for ways to support the great work that’s already happening in our community.”
Two members joined the students and staff at the school Thursday and volunteered their time to help them with the activity.
“We’re thrilled to be here helping kids out, to be able to send the message that they want to put out there to our community members, so that they can bring them some smiles,” said Weirl. “This is filling my cup today. So, hopefully those blankets are going to fill someone else’s cup too when they receive them.”
To date, Children of St. Martha Elementary School has distributed 1,650 blankets to members of the community, including the 270 being distributed this week.
“Sage Clan will be taking 200 of them this year and the other 70 will go to some smaller organizations that support our school specifically,” said McIntosh.

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