Hatsgiving is a registered 501c3 that relies on donations and volunteers to continue growing and reaching pediatric cancer patients around the country.
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What can I do?
Bring a new, soft hat (store-bought or handmade) sizes newborn to adult to the Hatsgiving drop-off locations.

Where will the hats go?
All of the new hats collected will be donated to pediatric cancer treatments centers around the country.

Meet Turk

​Turk is the Hatsgiving mascot.
​Created by Jeremy in 2013, Turk proudly wears his winter hat to raise awareness for childhood cancer and to support children going through treatment.

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Hatsgiving History

The concept for this project was created in 2012 by Jeremy Wernick, who had just turned 8 years old. That was the second year he decided to shave his head to raise money and awareness for childhood cancer research. As he braved the bald to coincide with his birthday in late fall, he realized it's a cold time of year to suddenly be without hair. This got him thinking about kids who undergo chemotherapy during the colder months, so he developed the idea of Hatsgiving. 

The first official collection was held in 2013 and Hatsgiving had only one collection site. 226 hats were distributed to children undergoing cancer treatment at The Children's Hospital at Albany Medical Center. 

Since then, Hatsgiving has partnered with more collection locations and donations have in increased, now collecting thousands of hats each year. Hatsgiving continues to grow and reach more regional children's cancer treatment centers, sending all of the wonderful, warm hats that are so graciously donated.

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Hatsgiving Collection Through the Years

2024: Records were broken this year. 10,457 hats were delivered, topping our previous record in 2022. 102 Treatment centers and cancer care facilities received shipments from Hatsgiving. We continued our partnership with HopeClub of the Capital Region* and had 22 marvelous volunteers to help get all the hats moving to their destinations.
2023: This year, we collected 7,973 hats and delivered them to over 92 treatment centers. 2023 also marked exciting steps in our progress. We partnered with HopeClub of the Capital Region*. Graciously, they allowed us to use space at their facility to process hats. We also had our first volunteer groups to help with the counting, sorting, and packing. The volunteers and facility were so fabulous, we don't know how we did it all these years without them. We look forward to working with them again next year.
     * The American Cancer Society HopeClub is a cancer community center for anyone whose life has been touched by cancer.
        Find out more about HopeClub. 
2022: We had our biggest collection yet! 9,690 hats were delivered to more than 90 locations around the country. Not only the generosity of our donors, but the creativity of the knitters and crocheters continues to amaze us.
2021: With the pandemic still gripping the country, some hospitals are not accepting hat donations, but we found more hospitals that were thrilled to get the new hats. We added hospitals in Alaska and Rhode Island this year. Since 2013, we have shipped hats to pediatric cancer centers in 48 states. This year, we delivered 7,795 hats to 73 different hospitals.
2020: Even during a pandemic, we collected more hats than ever before, 8,389, to be exact. We added new collection partners and received a donation of nearly 1,200 hats from Peruvian Trading Company. While some hospitals are not accepting hat donations due to COVID-19, we added new hospitals and continue to add more.
2019: We more than doubled our hat total from last year. You helped us collect 6,449 hats. Among our biggest helpers this year was a 12-year-old cancer patient. Dillon Speanburg made it his mission to collect as many hats as he could and brought us an incredible 722 all by himself.
2018: We added several treatment centers to our list this year. Without the donations of wonderful people all over the country this wouldn't be possible. Thanks for helping us send 3,008 hats to children this year.
2017: The generosity of people across the country is the reason we
could donate 2,813 hats to children this year. 
2016: We are so grateful to Lids for donating 860 warm hats this year. At the final count, we have received over 2,710 hats for distribution and will be sending them to 15 treatment centers across the country.
2015: Thanks to the generosity of people all over the Capital Region and beyond, Hatsgiving distributed 1,563 hats to kids undergoing treatment all around the Northeast.
2014: Combining the November and the May drives, Hatsgiving provided 1,272 hats for patients in the Capital Region and beyond. Wow! What a huge increase from our first year. Lots of heads staying warm thanks to all of the wonderful donations.
2013: Hatsgiving provided 226 hats to pediatric patients This was all from just one collection site.