At the town hall on Monday, a special embroidery blanket was handed over. It was given to Councillor Rik Thijs’ as a contribution to save the environment.
Eindhoven resident Gijsje van Bakel came up with the idea after seeing the documentary, A Life On Our Planet by David Attenborough.
“I have to start doing something to contribute,” she thought. “So I thought of ideas to unite started people. And to take action for the climate.”
Began in October
“I wanted to reach as many people as possible all over the world. At the end of October 2020, I started the project. I rolled it out via Instagram: @Comfortblanketforourplanet.”
Participants each make a 10x10cm patch. They send these to Gijsje. She sews all the bits into a massive blanket.
Every day she receives patches for the comfort blanket. “By now, I have 1,467 patches. These are from people from 17 different countries spread over three continents.”
What ‘ordinary’ people can do
“With the Comfort blanket, I want to show that we ‘ordinary’ people can work together on a project. That’s regardless of nationality, gender or age,” says Gijsje.
People can join here. This website, too, is a group project. Gijsje’s followers have translated it into seven languages. In November 2021, she’s taking the blanket on the road.
Then, it’s the climate summit in Glasgow. “Hopefully, by then, the blanket will have patches from all seven continents,” she says.
Source: www.studio040.nl
Translated by: Bob
