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Yarn drive underway for area students in need

Pahrump resident Barb Johnston is hoping to provide the gift of warmth to students attending area schools.

Johnston is holding a yarn drive to furnish hats and scarves for hundreds of less fortunate students.

For many years, Johnston and a host of volunteers have collected and created the winter accessories for students in need throughout the Nye County School District.

“The bottom line is that we need yarn to complete them,” she said. “We also do some for the Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) organization because sometimes the students the CASA volunteers are serving, are definitely in need. We are looking for enough yarn to create 500 sets of hats and scarves for our students.”

Johnston said donating the materials is simple, as several businesses in town serve as drop-off points.

Those businesses are the Pahrump Valley Pool League at the Hideaway, located at 4760 Pahrump Valley Blvd., Suite 13, Fur Fax, at 1161 S. Loop Road, and Sunflower Fashions, at 1210 E. Basin Ave.

Additionally, Johnston said the project would be impossible without her assemblage of volunteers.

“Right now, we have 10 to 15 volunteers working on the hats and scarves year-round,” she said. “At this point, we have about 30 scarves and hats that have already been made so we still have a ways to go. Our volunteers must work year-round because it’s not something we just do in October to get them done because it will be cold in November.”

Johnston also noted that no two items are the same.

“Most of the hats and scarves will be one of a kind, because we try to do as many different possible combinations as we can. We are looking for as much yarn as we can get because we need six to seven hundred skeins each year. Yarn is sold in the measurement of skeins.”

Johnston noted that those who have unused yarn lying around the house can also help with the project.

“Remnant yarn is where somebody was making a sweater and they have some yarn left over and don’t know what to do with it,” she said. “It just ends up sitting around the house, because they are basically leftovers.”

Johnston also spoke of several upcoming fundraisers to spur the project along.

“The first of which will be on Tuesday, March 7, regarding pearls,” she said. “The woman is in North Dakota and she opens the pearls online. If you wanted to buy a pearl necklace for your wife or daughter, you can shop online. It is a fairly new business developed on Facebook and they are able to do it online. If you have the right setup with your computer, you can actually see your pearl being opened. There are purple pearls, green, gray and peach pearls. There are a variety of different-colored pearls and I never knew that.”

On March 12, Dickey’s Barbecue will donate a percentage of their sales between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m.

“During that time there will be a couple of us camped out there and making the hats and scarves,” Johnston said. “If anyone wants to talk to us, they are welcome to come by and chat and visit.”

For additional information call Johnston at (775)751-5356.

“I have an answering machine where anyone can leave a message, or people can reach me at barbquilts@yahoo.com.”

Contact reporter Selwyn Harris at sharris@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @pvtimes

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