Overview:
The Scarf Project, established by Sandra Cross Beebe of Wendell, is a community initiative that provides warm clothing and accessories to those in need during the cold weather season. The project has collected around 1,000 items this year, including hand-knitted scarves, blankets, and stuffed animals, which are displayed on the Greenfield Common for people to take as needed. The initiative has grown to include three generations of the Cross family, and while donations are usually used to purchase items, family members contributed more out of their own pockets this year due to financial challenges.
GREENFIELD — A vast display of stuffed animals, blankets, scarves, and other warm clothing and accessories will be sprawled across the Greenfield Common for the next few days, ready for those in need to take to stay warm this winter.
Eight years ago, Wendell resident Sandra Cross Beebe was thinking about what she could do to give back to her community. Having experienced homelessness with her daughter in the past, Cross Beebe said she established The Scarf Project to help those in need of warm clothes, hand-knit scarves or blankets during the coldest time of year.
“I was homeless for a while myself with my daughter, and I remember the kindness of other people dropping off stuff at the shelter, hats, mittens, food,” she said Monday night while hanging scarves around the Greenfield Common. “It’s always been a thing in the back of my mind that when I could, I would give back.”
Of the roughly 1,000 items collected this year, Cross Beebe said she knitted 45 scarves, while her cousin Donna O’Connor made 100 scarves and 22 hats. Cross Beebe said this year’s drive collected roughly the same amount of items as in 2024, adding that generally, the number of items donated has been steadily increasing from year to year.
While some of the distributed items are homemade, Cross Beebe buys many of the coats, mittens and stuffed animals. She said distributing the items on the common felt like a more wide-reaching method than donating them to a shelter or service center.
“The benefit is that this is not income-based, and it’s on the honor system,” she said. “Nobody needs to show me anything to get anything, because I know how difficult that is.”
The Scarf Project has now grown to include three generations of the Cross family, as Sandra’s daughter, Alicia Cross, has joined the annual tradition, and her children, Deshiana Davis, 15, and Angelino Davis, 17, now volunteer every year to collect the objects and display them.
“Both of these guys have grown up volunteering,” Alicia Cross said, pointing to her kids. “I [bring] them with me, at the school or at the YMCA doing this, and I make them do a lot of community work.”
Alicia Cross added that The Scarf Project usually asks the community for donations, which are used to buy the cold-weather items. However, she said this year, people were a bit more “strapped for cash,” and family members contributed more out of their own pockets.
As the days get colder and hard financial times make it more challenging for people to make ends meet, Sandra Cross Beebe said the drive is looking to meet rising need.
“Thanks to everyone who contributed to The Scarf Project this year, especially Donna O’Connor for her contribution,” she said. “We’ll keep doing this until I get tired of knitting.”