AMARILLO, Texas (KVII) — For more than a decade, children served by Amarillo Area CASA received something many could carry with them no matter where they were placed: a handmade blanket knitted by Harriet Dunlap.
CASA estimates Dunlap donated more than 600 blankets, each made by hand. Her daughter, Becky Elizabeth Dunlap, said the blankets offered a kind of comfort that went beyond typical donations.
“Everybody gives things like toiletries and stuffed animals and such, but a blanket or a quilt or stitching is something entirely different because this is something that they can wrap around them,” Becky Elizabeth Dunlap said. “Maybe they don’t have somebody’s arms to put around them, but they can put that blanket around them and keep them warm and keep them safe.”
Jarah Mendoza, executive director of Amarillo Area CASA, said the blankets often became one of the few consistent belongings children could keep as they moved through the foster care system.
“When children get placed into foster care sometimes, or when they move to a different foster home or somewhere else, a lot of times they don’t have a lot of belongings,” Mendoza said. “And so these blankets are one piece of home that they take with them wherever they go. And it’s just such a blessing to the children that we serve to have that comfort when things aren’t always happy, comfortable, sometimes they’re scary.”
Becky Dunlap said her mother made the blankets colorful and unique so children would have something that felt like it belonged to them. She said that when children were moved unexpectedly, items sometimes got left behind — including, in some cases, the blankets.
“And in a couple of cases, it was some of the blankets. And those kids specifically asked for a Harriet blanket,” she said.
Harriet Dunlap died in December, but her daughter said knitting remained part of her life until the end.
“She continued to do until that was one of the last things that she was doing, which was knitting. Her hands were always moving,” Becky Elizabeth Dunlap said.
Mendoza encouraged others in the community to continue that kind of support for children and families involved in the foster care system.
“Whether that’s making comfort blankets for children in foster care, doing whatever they can to support foster families, biological families, whatever we can do to just really help the system as a whole,” Mendoza said.
Harriet Dunlap’s hand-knit blankets comforted Texas children in need for a decade (KVII)