Latest news with #blankets
CTV News
6 days ago
- General
- CTV News
Seniors group stitches blankets for wildfire evacuees
A group of Winnipeg seniors is providing comfort for wildfire evacuees in the city. A group of Winnipeg seniors is keeping busy by stitching together blankets for wildfire evacuees from across the province. Bonnie Morris, a member with Blanketing Manitoba, said that she wanted evacuees at shelters to 'feel a little more comfortable' and came up with the initiative. Morris said the group is made up of approximately 30 seniors. They make between 300 and 400 blankets a year on average, all of which are donated to 20 local charities. 'To be given a special blanket that you know somebody has spent the time to make for you, I think it would warm their hearts,' Morris said. Roughly 17,000 people from northern Manitoba are being evacuated due to ongoing wildfire danger, with many expected to come to Winnipeg. Blanketing Manitoba has been around since 2002 and gathers twice a month at Good Neighbours Active Living Centre to knit, crochet, sew and quilt blankets.
CTV News
7 days ago
- Health
- CTV News
LifeSchoolHouse Blanket Project builds community in Nova Scotia
The Life School House Project makes blankets for those in need. The LifeSchoolHouse Blanket Project brings together volunteers who donate their time and materials to make quilts for local charities and community groups in Nova Scotia. 'LifeSchoolHouse is a skill sharing model, where we bring community members together to help them learn new skills but also to reduce social isolation,' executive director Melissa Boucher-Guilbert said. Jennifer and Scott DeCoste started LifeSchoolHouse in 2018. Each month the group meets in the community room of the Kiwanis building at Grahams Grove in Dartmouth. 'Today we have about 10 volunteers who came together to make blankets,' Boucher-Guilbert said. 'Some people drop off some material that they have on hand that they no longer use.' Each volunteer has an important role. 'Some folks are cutting fabric, others are stitching it together, some are finishing some quilts that will be ready to donate to the organization that the group has chosen together,' said Boucher-Guilbert. The blanket project is in its fourth year, with each year making more and more quilts. So far this year, they have made just over 100, a volunteer said. 'Right now, we currently make and donate blankets to Adsum House, to palliative care and cancer care, Holly House, and we've recently added Northwood,' the volunteer said. The blankets symbolize someone who cares for the person receiving it, she said. 'Knowing that a bunch of people have come together to form their own little community within the community and have thought about what they're going through and in some way shows that we care,' the volunteer said. LifeSchoolHouse Blanket Project Volunteers at the LifeSchoolHouse Blanket Project hold up quilts made. (CTV Atlantic/Mike Lamb) For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
The Herald
28-05-2025
- General
- The Herald
Stitched with love: 67 Blankets brings warmth and dignity to Nazareth House
'I noticed when I picked it up that it's handmade with love,' said a resident. 'Thank you very much on behalf of the Sisters of Nazareth and the whole of Nazareth House.' Resident Fay Paul was visibly moved. 'I am thrilled. I cannot tell you — the colours are what I like. Nazareth House has been fantastic to me. I was a carer for my husband for 22 years. I needed help and they took me in with open arms. Now, to receive something so beautiful, I am so happy.' Lynton, a representative from 67 Blankets, highlighted the time and effort put into each piece: 'It takes about four months to make a blanket. There's a lot of work, but it's more than a blanket — it becomes a comfort, especially for older people. It's something they identify with. It stays with them.' Sister Sikholiwe Ngwenya of Nazareth House expressed deep gratitude: 'We are so happy, especially because it's winter. The blankets are beautiful and mean so much to our residents. Many of them have no visitors. Receiving these gifts feels like a blessing.' For Steyn and the KnitWits, it's about more than just wool and hooks. 'It's a movement for change in our world,' Steyn said. 'It's incredible what individuals are capable of.' TimesLIVE
BBC News
16-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Canada's iconic Hudson Bay brand to survive after sale to competitor
The Hudson Bay Company - Canada's oldest corporation - will sell its brand to another iconic national retailer, Canadian department store chain, which has applied for creditor protection, will sell its intellectual property for C$30m ($21.5m, £16.2m).The move comes after the company, also known as HBC, liquidated all its stores, citing a shifting retail landscape post-pandemic and US tariffs as insurmountable challenges. Canadian Tire is another major domestic retailer, with over 1,700 shops across the country that sell everything from sporting goods to hardware. Why shoppers are spending thousands on these blanketsAt stake is a brand that is over 350 years old. Founded in 1670, HBC was granted a royal charter to control trade in parts of Canada. The company began trading British-made wool "point" blankets emblazoned with stripes in blue, red, green and then morphed into a mid- and upper-range department store with key properties in several historic downtown buildings in cities across the country. It also began branding a plethora of products with those same point-blanket stripes, from teddy bears to it announced it would be closing down, demand for Hudson's striped products soared, with blankets especially selling for thousands on eBay. The resurgence of interest in the company, while it was on its last breath, sparked some hope that the brand may be able to make a comeback. The sale of its intellectual property - which includes in-house brands like Gluckstein and Distinctly Home - to Canadian Tire will ensure that the brand lives on, even if the physical shops do not.
CNN
12-05-2025
- Business
- CNN
Trump's tariffs could boost some ‘Made in America' small businesses. But for many, they only hurt
It takes about 20 steps for tufts of raw wool to become a signature Faribault Mill blanket, and it all happens under one roof in this southern Minnesota city. It's a symphonic process that has been honed over 160 years and now one where employees (including third- and fourth-generation mill staff members) work alongside a blend of state-of-the-art machinery and 19th century equipment from start to finish. The only things missing from the mill are the sheep themselves: Many of them are busy grazing fields a few states over in the Rocky Mountains. It's been largely business as usual at the Faribault Mill in recent months, a state of affairs that has very recently become a luxury for scores of US companies. Faribault Mill remains overwhelmingly insulated from the uncertainty injected into the US economy as President Donald Trump's sweeping and steep tariffs upend operations for businesses reliant upon global trade. 'We haven't had to create a war room; we've just continued to make blankets the way we've been doing it for a long time,' Ross Widmoyer, Faribault Mill's chief executive officer, told CNN. If anything, it's only gotten busier. Widmoyer has been fielding a slew of calls from potential new customers, retailers trying to stave off shortages and shore up their shelves come fall and Christmastime. Still, despite the possible boon, Faribault Mill and other companies with domestic-centric supply chains aren't entirely immune from negative implications of Trump's ever-shifting trade moves. 'That's the thing: The uncertainty and the fear of a slowdown in consumer spending,' Widmoyer said. 'I don't care if you're making product in the United States, or you're making everything overseas. That will certainly not help any business if there's a slowdown.' The US imported about $723 million worth of pet toys last year, 93% of which originated from China, according to a trade data analysis provided to CNN by Jason Miller, professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University. Import tariffs, particularly the 145% level imposed by the US last month on Chinese goods, should be welcome for a company like West Paw, which has made dog toys from recycled materials in scenic Bozeman, Montana, for nearly 29 years. In that time, West Paw forged a domestic supply chain out of a desire to create economic vitality in the local community while minimizing impact on the environment, said Spencer Williams, West Paw's founder and CEO. It certainly came in handy five years ago, when the pandemic snarled once-smooth supply chains. West Paw's sales soared as demand for pets boomed and as product shortages pinched other manufacturers. So far this year, Williams has seen a noticeable uptick in requests from businesses large and small interested in carrying West Paw's toys. 'With the [more than 90%] of pet toys imported from China, we cannot produce all of those in Montana; but we will take on, happily, a partnership with a retailer who's looking for a long-term relationship,' Williams said. The potential is ripe for another bountiful period in West Paw's business; however, 2025 is not expected to be a rinse-and-repeat of the pandemic sales boom for two primary reasons, Williams noted. First, there's no certainty these tariffs will remain as they are today. 'I'm not going to double this factory tomorrow or be foolish, because I couldn't bank on that; I have no assurance that this is going to be the market going forward,' he said. 'We scaled a lot in Covid, and then things did slow down a little bit after that. A lot of industries saw that. So, we're going to be very thoughtful and cautious and serve our customers best with predictability.' Second, the reverberating effects of tariffs — specifically, retaliatory actions by other countries — stand to deliver a big bite on an important leg of West Paw's business. The company exports its toys to 40 countries, with Canada being its largest partner. West Paw's export business accounts for about 15% to 18% of overall sales, Williams said. West Paw doesn't want to lose those sales, he said. It's good business for the company, gets its brand out there globally and brings in foreign currency into the United States. 'We feel like we've been at the forefront of doing right in our business by building a supply chain that is durable and independent and private in America since we were founded in 1996; we will not change that,' he said. 'And we also believe firmly that we are global citizens who have the opportunity to work with partners around the world.' 'I love our export customers; they challenge us to be better,' he added. 'And while it's hard to love the imports that are coming in at low cost, it also helps us compete, to sharpen our pencil and be really innovative as a company.' In early 2005, Oneida Limited shuttered its 1 million-square-foot silverware-making facility in Sherrill, New York. Oneida's move — a continuation of a shuffling of operations overseas — put a fork in the company's storied run in a town nicknamed 'The Silver City.' The closure also presented an opportunity for two employees to buy the plant and breathe new life into a hampered US manufacturing industry. Their Sherrill Manufacturing compnay would become the sole remaining flatware maker in the US. Twenty years after that purchase, Sherrill Manufacturing co-founder Greg Owens tells CNN that even more opportunities are abound because of the tariffs that have been imposed. 'Domestic manufacturing is going to have its renaissance if, in fact, there's follow-through on this,' said Owens, whose Sherrill Manufacturing produces the Liberty Tabletop flatware brand. 'It started out with a bang, and I think it's part of the negotiating process, as there was a pause put in. So, everybody's sitting in a holding pattern waiting to see what's going to be the final-final.' 'And when that final-final is announced, and people are confident that it's going to stick — hopefully through Congress and not through [executive orders], that's when the investing and hiring begins.' Liberty Tabletop has plenty of capacity to expand, Owens said, noting the facility could ramp up to four times its output in relatively short order. Liberty Tabletop, in addition to selling to the US government (particularly military bases) has built a direct-to-consumer business to keep prices down for customers and also has a private label business, which has received an increase in interest since the tariffs were implemented. To that end, the tariffs on China, in particular, could help level the playing field, Owens said, noting that country produces 80% of the flatware America imports. Additionally, his company inked a three-year supply agreement with its US-based steel provider at the end of last year, which could help guard Liberty Tabletop against any raw material price increases that could occur as a result of trade-related measures. 'It's better to be lucky than good,' he said. 'I think we're in great shape. There are others who don't have those agreements that may not be in that same position.' Tariffs create some winners as well as some losers, Jason Miller, the MSU professor, told CNN. 'The challenge is, it's a weighted average to see which one is more pronounced,' he said. 'My general sense is that right now, we're in the category where the losing is more pronounced, but we have to see how policy evolves.' The biggest challenge, by and far, is uncertainty, Miller said. 'Not knowing what's going to happen is so problematic for businesspeople,' he said. At the Faribault Mill, Widmoyer said that having more certainty — 'whatever that landscape will be' — will enhance businesses' abilities to plan and invest. 'On the flip side [to the increase in calls from retailers], there are a lot of retailers who I think are just hunkering down, staying put, trying to figure out what's going to happen next,' he said. 'That uncertainty is not sustainable over the long run.' Still, his company is positioned to withstand some shifts, he said, noting recent seven-figure investments in the mill's equipment and its workers that improved productivity and allowed for some price cuts for its best-selling products. 'If you do the right things for your customers, it could help you withstand the storms of any economic uncertainty,' he said. And Faribault Mill has weathered plenty of upheaval since 1865 — including the Civil War, two world wars, multiple recessions, two global pandemics and multiple booms. 'This company has withstood the test of time,' he said. 'It hasn't always been easy, but we figure it out.'
