Middle Way House unraveled its Wrapped in Love campaign Oct. 5 at a yarn-cutting ceremony at the Monroe County Courthouse.
Wrapped in Love is a public art display of tree sweaters around Bloomington to raise awareness and funds for sexual violence and abuse services. Debra Morrow, executive director of Middle Way House, cut a piece of yarn after several speeches to signify the start of the public art display.
“The knitters worked on the sweaters all summer long,” said Erin Hollinden, the event coordinator at Middle Way House. “Each fabric artist put in over 40 hours, some maybe even 100, so it’s quite a bit of hard work.”
Katherine Devich of Middle Way House put the sweaters on the trees within the last two weeks. The sweaters are a creative way to raise awareness in the community and raise money.
“The sweaters are sponsored by businesses and individuals, and they get their signage on one of the trees,” Hollinden said.
Middle Way House uses these funds to provide supportive services to survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and human trafficking in Indiana. The nonprofit is mainly volunteer-run.
“We have volunteers that work in every part of our agency,” Morrow said. “We have seven volunteer trainings a year for our services.”
Middle Way House has a 24-hour crisis line, an advocacy program for walk-in clients and an extensive children’s program.
“The project is really a way to show the community’s support for survivors,” Morrow said. “It’s a representation of the community’s commitment to wrapping survivors in love and help, and I love the fact that the city allows those tree sweaters to be up.”
Middle Way House is encouraging everyone to participate in their raffle by taking a photo with all 36 trees that have sweaters on them, posting it on Instagram with the hashtag #WrapSurvivorsinLove and tagging Middle Way House.
Participants can get a map from Middle Way House showing where all the sweaters trees are located.
The organization hopes to continue with the Wrapped in Love campaign, and the sweaters will be up until March 15.
“There is a lot of dedication throughout the next five months,” Hollinden said. “We spend the entire winter maintaining and repairing the sweaters.”
Middle Way House hopes the campaign will continue raising awareness and funds to help citizens in Indiana.
“One of my favorite moments is when somebody comes back to Middle Way and sees you years later, telling you what an impact it had,” Morrow said. “Sometimes they come back and volunteer or make a donation, and they feel like they’re part of the solution. To me that is so wonderful.”
