Belmont Senior Citizens Learn About Project Linus

BELMONT – Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan spoke to Belmont seniors at the Belmont Council on Aging about a new partnership with Project Linus to provide blankets to children in Middlesex County who experience an opioid-related, or other trauma.

Ryan was also joined by Richard J. McLaughlin, Belmont Chief of Police; David Frizzell, Belmont Fire Department Chief; Wayne Haley, Belmont Assistant Fire Chief; and Nava Niv-Vogel, Director, Belmont Council on Aging.

Project Linus will also provide blankets to all children identified through Project C.A.R.E, a partnership involving the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, the Lowell Police Department, Lowell Fire Department, Trinity Ambulance and the Mental Health Association of Greater Lowell to provide a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week rapid response trauma-informed intervention for children who witness a parent or loved one suffer an overdose.

Early and appropriate trauma-informed care can help children cope with trauma, build resiliency and help reduce the cyclical effects of substance misuse.

Blankets are currently being distributed to Middlesex County Chiefs of Police and other first-responders across the County to distribute when children have experienced other types of trauma such as witnessing a violent crime, loss of a parent or sibling or displacement from their home.

Project Linus is a 100% volunteer organization dedicated to creating and delivering new handmade blankets to any child who may be in need of some extra comforting.

Blankets can be knitted, crocheted, quilted or hand-tied by volunteers of all ages and abilities and are delivered to children in hospitals throughout the world or to any child in need of consolation.

You can find more information about Project Linus and its Greater Boston Chapter at www.projectlinus.org.

Courtesy photo ( Left to Right): Richard J. McLaughlin, Belmont Chief of Police; Marian Ryan, District Attorney; David Frizzell, Belmont Fire Department Chief; Wayne Haley, Belmont Assistant Fire Chief; and Nava Niv-Vogel, Director, Belmont Council on Aging.