By Brooke Hill | Staff Writer
This year, furry friends in Waco will have something to be thankful for, too.
The Mayborn Museum invited people to their Design Den on Thursday night to make fleece blankets to donate for use in animal crates at the Humane Society of Central Texas.
“We are honored to be selected for this wonderful event,” said Don Bland, executive director of the Humane Society of Central Texas. “Going into the cooler months, these blankets will be put to good use by the animals at the shelter while they wait for their new homes.”
Design Den coordinator Emily Clark said that she looked up national weeks for November and found National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week. This week was actually at the beginning of November, but she still loved the idea.
“I knew that for November it would be cool to do something that was a little more giving back or something … I knew the fleece blankets, I’ve done those with kids before for the animal shelter back when I lived in Austin,” Clark said. “I knew it was a really easy project and most animal shelters welcome blankets and so I reached out to the Humane Society and they said that they would love to have us do that for them and be able to donate them.”
Design Den has a few events each month during summer and typically just one a month during the school year. Clark said before the event that their goal is always to have around 50 people, but that they have sometimes gotten up to 100 on a good night.
“We have done sewing one time up here as one of our themes this past summer, and it was one of our most popular,” Clark said. “People really loved getting to do that kind of thing. We won’t be doing a lot with sewing machines this time, but I think just working with fabrics, people don’t do very often anymore. So I’m just excited to see how our visitors react and if they find it fun. I also am excited because doing an activity like this, it’s a really social activity, so I’m hoping we have people kind of stick around and want to chat. We always like to see our activities become a sort of social collaboration. I’m hoping that that happens.”
Each day in Design Den, visitors can use materials to build from their imagination. During special Design Den programs such as these, participants are invited to engage in an atmosphere of collaboration and creativity, according to their website.
