SEATTLE — It's the season of giving and one Seattle woman is hoping she can give people a new sense of life. She created an organization dedicated to helping people complete unfinished projects left behind by loved ones.
"It's snowing outside, and it's a cold place most days but it makes the world a little warmer," said Jen Simonic, bringing warmth to many one stitch at a time. "It takes 35,000 stitches to make a pair of socks, so that's 35,000 actions you're doing to produce this item that will hopefully take care of somebody, it's kind of like magic."
It's magic that continues to grow every week since she co-founded an organization with her friend back in September, called "Loose Ends." It focuses on connecting people through its website to complete unfinished projects left behind by loved ones who have passed or who are no longer able to do handwork due to a disability or illness and return them to their intended families and friends.
"We're not curing cancer or solving hunger, but we are reminding people that there's people out there that care about strangers," said Simonic.
Loose Ends has hundreds of volunteers known as "finishers" spanning throughout the country and across the world, making it a tight-knit community of people who want to help fill that hole that someone left behind.
"We have almost all the provinces in Canada, we've got people in the UK, people in the Netherlands, we have a finisher in Paris, and a finisher in Qatar right now," said Simonic.
She said they're not making any money off of Loose Ends and don't have any intentions of having it be for profit. Simonic said the families just have to pay for shipping for the unfinished projects sent to the finishers. So far, Loose Ends has completed 10 projects, but hopefully more people will reach out to feel some of that love they may be missing.
"Our main message is, you look like someone loved you, because they took the time to make something for you," said Simonic.