Sandy Goldstein

Los Altos resident Sandy Goldstein is continuing her mission to get scarves around the necks of local homeless through her long-established One Warm Scarf campaign.

Goldstein has worked for nearly fifteen years as an intermediary for yarn donors and local knitters and crocheters. Goldstein works to round up unused yarn for use by knitting groups and individuals. “We can always use more yarn, knitters, and crocheters,” Goldstein said.

Sandy was a Bay Area entrepreneur for over 30 years in the high tech computer industry.

Completed scarves, hats, blankets, slippers and booties are then delivered by Goldstein and fellow volunteers to the homeless taking refuge at shelters located in several bay area counties. Deliveries have been made from San Francisco to Santa Cruz. To date, thousands of handmade creations have been made their way to the homeless at these shelters during the winter months.

Residents can help by donating unused yarn or by knitting/crocheting themselves. Donations can be delivered to the Goldstein residence.

Contributors to the cause over the years have included Cupertino Senior Center Knitting Club, Sunnyvale Senior Center Knitting Club, Los Altos Knitting Club, Mountain View Senior Center Knitting Club, Mountain View High School students, , Los Altos Knitting Kittens, and hundreds of individual residents.

The effort continues year round and donations are accepted regardless of the month, season, or weather outdoors.

For more information on how to deliver yarn or assist, contact Sandy Goldstein at sandydangoldstein@gmail.com.

‘One Warm Scarf’ looking for more yarn

A simple donation of unused yarn could help warm someone in the Santa Clara Valley this cold winter season.

Los Altos resident Sandy Goldstein is continuing her mission to get scarves around the necks of local homeless through her long-established One Warm Scarf campaign.

Goldstein has worked for nearly five years as an intermediary for yarn donors and local knitters and crocheters. Goldstein works to round up unused yarn and deliver it to local senior centers for use by knitting groups.

“We can always use more yarn, knitters, and crocheters,” Goldstein said.

Completed scarves, hats, and booties are then delivered by Goldstein and fellow volunteers to the homeless taking refuge at shelters around the county. To date, thousands of scarves, hats, gloves and booties have been made their way to the homeless at these shelters during the winter months.

Residents can help by dropping off and donating unused yarn at local senior centers, or even knitting or crocheting warm scarves themselves. Delivery locations include the Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, and Los Altos senior centers. Yarn can also be delivered to Goldstein directly.

Contributors to the cause over the years have included Cupertino Senior Center Knitting Club, Sunnyvale Senior Center Knitting Club, Los Altos Knitting Club, Mountain View Senior Center Knitting Club, Los Altos Knitting Kittens, and individual residents.

The effort continues year round and donations are accepted regardless of the month, season, or weather outdoors.

For more information on how to deliver yarn or assist, contact Sandy Goldstein

Concept to Completion

Last week Sandy Goldstein spoke to us on her humanitarian work; her presentation was titled, quite modestly, “Conception to Completion.” Sandy’s original title, “One Person CAN Make a difference,” was suggestive of her remarkable capacity to “recognize a need, figure out a solution, and make it happen.” As per usual, Sandy’s slides are available on the Forum’s website.

If Sandy has a soundbite, it is “conceived by one, completed by many.” Sandy has conceived of projects to help Hurricane Katrina victims in New Orleans, refugee children in Asia and South America, homeless people on the Peninsula and in San Francisco, migrant workers in Pescadero, Hurricane victims in Haiti, Syrian refugees, and American Indians in Arizona. Her modus operandi involves the following:

Sandy conceives of a need based on her exposure to the news;

She translates the need into a project in which many individuals can each contribute in a relatively small way;

She looks for types of objects that are no longer needed by their owners (e.g., stuffed toys, books sitting unread on bookshelves), or for source materials that can be donated (e.g., yarn that is considered “overstocked” by its owners);

A prototypical project can be replicated across many individuals (e.g., many individuals can contribute books or toys, or knit scarves);

For each individual, the task can be defined as modest in scope, so as not to induce “donor fatigue.”

Each project can be advertised in local media;

Where possible, clubs and church groups, as well as individuals, are mobilized. Seniors are especially targeted during the outreach phase. (Not surprisingly, according to data collected by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, seniors—when they volunteer—contribute many more hours than any other age grouping.) In addition, for her stuffed animal and books project, Sandy found schools on the internet, contacted teachers and principals, sent sample flyers, and collected donations at schools. Thus, her skill set includes a considerable degree of organizational savvy.

Sandy runs her operation out of her home, with virtually no monetized administrative overhead. As far as I can tell, only rarely has she spent money, and I believe that was only to get books delivered to New Orleans libraries after Hurricane Katrina. She is the linchpin of her organizations, picking up finished items at senior centers, accepting finished work and items at home and giving out yarn to volunteers, storing items in cleaned, used garbage bins that she induced her local sanitation company to donate.

Finally, Sandy organizes friends and relatives, and others as well, to help her, and benefits from a like-minded individual who in effect “just showed up” to contribute several days a week of her time, on an ongoing basis.

In Sandy’s view—one I suspect shared with many members of the Forum—her efforts have created win-win experiences for recipients, seniors, and children, as well as for Sandy and her associates. I came away from Sandy’s talk mightily impressed. Her energy, compassion, and organizational effectiveness are quite special. Is this on the scale of the Gates Foundation’s funding of research to eliminate malaria? Of course not. That’s OK. To me it is enough that Sandy identifies needs, figures out ways to help needs get met, and then “makes it happen.” Furthermore, it’s not as though she’s fighting off the Ford Foundation to get books to New Orleans. Kudos to Sandy Goldstein.

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I TOTALLY agree!!!
David
If you want to read the whole presentation…Concept to Completion.

Scarves for the Homeless

As seen in these articles Sandy is hard at work helping the homeless.  Sandy collects yarn, donates to knitting clubs and in return receives hats etc. for the homeless.

Los Altos Online 
Mercury News
Chicoer.com

Photo Gallery

Prior Projects:

Used Stuffed Animals Project

Stuffed animals used to protect free medicine in shipping containers for impoverished countries.  

Used Books for Katrina

Local resident collects books for Katrina victims

Published: 09 October 2007 Written by Ivana Dukanovic – Special to the Town CrierLos Altos resident Sandy Goldstein collected more than 50 boxes of books donated by Los Altos elementary and junior high schools to distribute to children affected by Hurricane Katrina — then tried to ship them to Louisiana. That introduced a problem. The joy on the faces of the children who receive the books might be priceless, but the shipping certainly is not. Shipping companies charge from $1,200 to $1,700 for the lot, putting Goldstein in a difficult situation.”Channeling these books to the right place has proved to be very expensive,” Goldstein said. “But the important thing is to … get these books shipped.”Goldstein sent a flier to the schools asking students to rummage through their libraries at home and pick a gently used book or two to donate. She suggested the children enclose personal notes inside the front covers.Public, private and parochial schools in Los Altos responded enthusiastically. Springer Elementary, St. Simon, Montclaire, Pinewood and Blach Intermediate schools brought the bulk of the donations. Springer contributed 28 boxes of used picture and chapter books for the cause.”I want this to be a win-win situation,” Goldstein said. “Kids in Los Altos have so much, and I think they would really gain from a giving experience.”The books including the notes from Los Altos students are designated for children in the Lower Ninth Ward, a new emergency center and a part of the Emergency Communities Organization in New Orleans, and the Martin Luther King Charter School.Goldstein remains unable to facilitate their arrival to New Orleans by the end of October. She will bring two boxes with her to the Lower Ninth Ward when she flies to New Orleans on Friday. But the remaining 48 boxes, which must be delivered directly to Martin Luther King Charter School, still require transportation.Goldstein said she would appreciate contributions from local residents.”This is a community effort,” she said.Anyone who is aware of or owns a freight company, knows of someone traveling to New Orleans in the near future or would be able to make a donation, call Sandy Goldstein at 650-968-2751 or e-mail sandydangoldstein@gmail.com