Creating Community One Knot at a Time

At Coffee & Connections on July 24, Mia led the gathering in a blanket-making activity for the local Binky Patrol chapter she founded in May 2025. 

Binky Patrol, the national nonprofit founded in 1996 in Laguna Beach, mobilizes volunteers to make handmade blankets for children facing poverty, illness, homelessness, trauma, or other difficult circumstances. 

Mia's path to becoming an area coordinator began not with volunteering for the cause, but searching for community. "I was feeling really lonely," she said. Her educational journey had been unconventional, and by the time she was studying psychology at a commuter college, she found it difficult to build meaningful new relationships. “Most people left campus right after class, which makes sense,” she said. “But I really wanted to make friends."

She asked herself what kind of activity might naturally bring people together. "Crafting came up as something I enjoy that a lot of others do, too. It’s not niche—or too broad."

Her grandmother taught her to knit. “I learned during Covid like so many people,” she said, laughing. “Eventually, I got to the point where I could make a ton of progress without looking.” While classes, meetings, and extracurricular activities all happened over Zoom, the knitting project in her lap kept boredom at bay. Crochet soon followed. “It's so versatile.” 

First, she found in-person community sewing costumes for three Santa Monica middle school musicals. Crafting, she realized, brought people together regardless of age. The things that often divide us didn't matter nearly as much as the project sitting in the middle of the table.

The search for other crafters led her to the Santa Monica chapter of Binky Patrol, which is “run by several lovely, retired women," she said, smiling. "They meet about twice a year; for the rest of the time, everyone works at home."

It was welcoming. But Mia realized she wanted to gather in person more often. "I poked around on the website and realized it wasn't too hard to start a chapter. I thought, 'You know what? I'm just going to make my own chapter and see if anybody comes.'"

Starting a Binky Patrol chapter wasn’t too hard in terms of paperwork. “There were forms to fill out, agreements to sign,” she relays. “The most daunting tasks, though, were sourcing material and finding people."

Her mother shared information in neighborhood Facebook groups. Early volunteers appeared. Pictures from meetings became social media posts, which brought in even more volunteers. "It was seeing who was out there," she said. "And if they wanted to join, we were happy to have them."

Starting the chapter hasn't simply helped Mia find community. It forced her into her larger, existing community.

To source fabric, Mia knew she needed to walk into businesses and ask strangers for help. "I had my little spiel," she laughed. "‘Hi, my name's Mia. I’m starting a new, local chapter of Binky Patrol. This is what we do. Is it okay if I put up my flyer? Might you have any fabric you'd be willing to part with?'"

She scored at Fabric Planet. “They had this bin of fabric they couldn't sell anymore," she said. "They said, 'If you want it, you can have it.'"

Creating Binky Patrol was a clever way of tricking herself into meeting people. "I was actually going through exposure therapy for social anxiety when I started the chapter,” Mia revealed. And that made every conversation have higher stakes. "I remember thinking, 'What am I doing? This is crazy.'" But children needed blankets; the chapter needed volunteers. So she kept walking through one door after another.

"I ended up talking to twenty random people in one week," she said. "A lot of them took my posters." She paused and laughed. "It was the most terrible—but also the best—week I've had."

That's the paradox of service. So often, while we're trying to change someone else's life, our own quietly changes first.

Mia found mentors along the way, including Sonia, who serves in the quilting ministry at St. Paul's Lutheran Church as well, and has been involved with the original Santa Monica Binky Patrol chapter almost since the organization began. "She's a legend," Mia raves. 

Every Binky Patrol chapter develops its own partnerships. Blankets from Mia’s group have found their way to children through organizations serving undocumented families, low-income families, St. John's Westside Family Health Center, and Para Los Niños in downtown Los Angeles. "We don't really have one specific focus yet," Mia admitted. "I keep getting excited by more organizations and finding new relationships," she said.

That spirit of openness carried into Friday's Coffee & Connections gathering. Rather than asking participants to crochet—a project that can take ten hours or more—Mia chose no-sew fleece blankets. "You can actually finish one in a single sitting," she explained. “All you need to know is how to use scissors and tie a knot."

Before long, strangers became teammates, clustered around blankets too large for one person to manage alone.

By the end of the morning, five coverlets were complete, made by many hands. Five reminders that community itself is something we create, one knot at a time.

Loneliness tells us to withdraw. Service asks us to step forward. One leaves us isolated; the other introduces us to strangers who become teammates, mentors, and friends. Sometimes healing begins by deciding to make something for someone who doesn’t know us and can’t thank us, but can be warmed by our care.

"We don’t have to do it alone, Mia said. “Not only learning but practicing that has been a blessing for me."

Jessica Cole