Why Orange? Why a Hat?

Our opening day in 2018

 "My house is me and I am it, my house is where I like to be and it looks like all my dreams." Said Mr. Plumbean in "The Big Orange Hat" by Pinkwater. 

In this lovely book, Mr. Plumbean breaks out of the mold of cookie cutter houses on his street to design a house that looks like his dreams.  His neighbors, one by one, follow suit until their street is not a "neat" street, but it is uniquely them. The Orange in "Orange Hat" was chosen because we want our children to dream! Every child who comes to the Orange Hat "are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for them to do!" (Eph 2:10)  We want them to dream of the beautiful things God has prepared for them, and walk in joy knowing that their "house" and their dreams are unique to them. 

"Ivan, what do you really love to do?" - The Hatmaker in "A Hat for Ivan" by Max Lucado

This book speaks of a boy who's Father is the hat maker of their town, making hats for people based on their loves and what they are good at. The Hat in "Orange Hat" came about because God "created the inmost being" of each child that we get to treasure in our space, and he "knit them in their mother's womb" (Psalm 139) for a purpose. We want to be there to help them to discover their own "hats."

In 2018, I established the Orange Hat with my friend Mary Jane. It was located in a one room shop in our neighborhood in Jos, Nigeria. 

We closed in 2020, and reopened in 2022 in a building a church has loaned to us for this year. Auntie Blessing and Auntie Celine now run the Orange Hat three afternoons a week during the school year. Stay tuned to read more about what's happening!

A child reading "Lulu and the Long Walk" Illustrations by Tanis