09 30 25 US Cathy Alderman and Pat LaMarche tariff impact on Homeless Memorial Blankets

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is Colorado's morning news. Countries are being slapped with
tariffs on a variety of products, from kitchen cabinets and
vanities to upholstered products and other furniture.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Now a couple of organizations are feeling the impact of
the teariff policies when it comes to handcrafted blankets and
quilts from abroad for people in the US who are
experiencing homelessness. Joining us on the KWA Common Spirit Health hotlines.
As founder of the Homeless Memorial Blanket Project, it's Pat
LaMarsh and Kathy Alderman with the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless.
I appreciate your as his time this morning. Pat, I'm

(00:28):
going to start with you if you don't mind explaining
a little bit about what the Memorial Blanket Project is
to begin with.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
Well, thanks so much for having me on. It's really
a treat. The Homeless Memorial Blanket Project started about five
years ago, back when the pandemic was in full swing
and we were losing people on the street at an
alarming rate. It's actually still quite alarming. And we're an
arts organization that supports social justice non we're non for profit,

(00:54):
and we decided that if we could do something that
had a physical impact for people that are experienced be
homelessless now, but do it on Homeless Remembrance Night, which
is December twenty first, the longest night of the year.
We might be able to get some artisans and artists
in the region to create handmade blankets and then we
would distribute them that evening. So we didn't know if

(01:16):
we get five or six blankets. First year we get
two hundred and seventeen. The second year we put eighteen
thousand square feet of handmade blankets on the west lawn
of the US Capital. We've done displays at the Supreme Court,
at Independence Hall, We've been all up and down up
in Maine. This is our first time across the Mississippi.
We're very excited to be bringing these blankets to Denver.

(01:38):
And this year, as we have in past years, we've
gotten blankets from abroad, except this year we've been told
they'll be tariffs. We'll have to pay tariffs to get
the blankets into the country.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
What, specifically, pat what are those impacts? Is it just
more money to make them? I mean, where are you
getting your material?

Speaker 3 (01:54):
Everyone who makes a blanket, with the exception of a
few people. We have people who make blankets, even from
homeless shelters that other people will buy the materials for them.
It's knitted or crocheted or quilted. But the most people
just purchase their own materials create the blanket. We have
a thousand or more volunteers, so probably half a million
dollars worth of contributions in blankets. It makes a gorgeous display.

(02:15):
I hope you guys can come out to it when
we're there December twenty first. But what happens is what
happened was our Australian friends got to the post office
and we're told they couldn't ship the blankets because they
were coming to an organization in the United States and
the tariff had to be paid. And Australia, as well
as Germany and other country that send us blankets, they
have been They have suspended shipping anything under eight hundred

(02:37):
dollars in value to the United States because of the
suspension of the deminimous exemption, which is an exemption on
small value items that were coming to the United States.
Now in or to collect the tariffs, these foreign post
offices aren't sure they're going to get the tariff once
it comes to the United States, so they've stopped shipping.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
So Kathy tell us about that we will remember Homeless
Person's Memorial Vigil that takes place in December. Like Pat mentioned,
are there concerns that the tariff impacts will will really
hurt that vigil taking place this year.

Speaker 4 (03:08):
Well, good morning and thanks for having me, and I
appreciate Pat joining as well this morning. This partnership is
really exciting for us this year as we plan for
the twenty twenty five Moyal vigil, and one of the
things that we were most looking forward to is enhancing
that visual experience for folks who join us at the
vigil by having the blankets available, by giving people the

(03:30):
opportunity to engage and participate in something, you know, other
than just just the name reading and looking at the candles.
And so this year, you know, we were really looking
forward to having the blankets both there to represent people's
you know, care for people experiencing homelessness, as well as
to give people the opportunity to take something with them

(03:53):
to keep them warm on the longest night of the year.
And so I think we're just trying to figure out
right now now what this does. This mean in terms
of how many blankets are we going to have available,
Do we need to be doing additional outreach, Do we
need to be thinking about the cost of materials for
folks when we're asking them to make these kinds of donations.

(04:15):
And frankly, this is just not something that I think
any of us expected to be grappling with as we're
preparing for the shares pedule.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
Kathy, how can people help out with this? And I'm
assuming with remembering the homeless people, I'm sure there's family
members that may not even know their family members are homeless,
or people that don't have families. It's a way of
trying to say, these are not data points, these are
people that are having issues. I'm assuming.

Speaker 3 (04:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (04:38):
Absolutely, Every year after we do the name reading and
we put the program out, we get contacts from family
members who say, I had no idea that my family
member was, you know, in Denver, experiencing homelessness or had
passed away. And in some instances, people are so grateful
that we had the visual and honored them in a
way that they may not have otherwise been honored in

(05:00):
order to help people can obviously join us individual you know,
there's there's comfort numbers when we're all standing there talking
about people who've lost their lives. And they can make donations,
both blanket donations or quilt donations if they're if they're
crafty in that way. And obviously we're going to really
depend on local donations this year because we're of the

(05:23):
troubles that we're seeing was getting things from other countries,
but they can also make financial donations. And then just
you know, the thing I like to tell people all
the time is if you see somebody experiencing homelessness in
the street, don't just pass them by. Don't just pretend
like they don't exist. You know, A smile, a hello,
can I help is a great way not just to

(05:46):
recognize their humanity but your own.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
Find more information at Memorial Blanket dot org and Colorado
Coalition dot org. Founder of the Homeless Memorial Blanket Project,
it's Pat LaMarsh and Kathy Alderman with the Colorado Coalition
for the Homeless