Imagine being a child and the world as you know it suddenly changes overnight. No explanation that makes sense. No familiar surroundings. Just uncertainty, fear, and a new, unfamiliar place to sleep.

That is the reality for the youngest children who arrive at local area shelters. They come in under the most traumatic of circumstances, carrying nothing but what they’ve lived through.

Bay Area Service Teens handcraft soft, cozy fleece blankets through the philanthropic program, Project Snuggle, which are delivered to shelters for each child to receive as they enter their new, temporary home.

A blanket can’t undo what a child has been through. But it can be the first soft thing in a very hard moment. It can be theirs — truly theirs — in a time when so much feels out of their control.