When a missionary told Shirley King's church congregation in 2003 that thousands of African children had lost their parents in the AIDS epidemic, King decided to help.

More than 200,000 fleece and cotton flannel blankets later, King is still helping through the nonprofit she founded, Gramma's Hugs International.

"I've made blankets all my life," said King, 79, a retired high school English teacher who lives in Elk Grove. "My mother was a seamstress. She taught me to embroider at the age of 6, and I taught myself to knit.

"Every time you wrap a child in a blanket, it's like giving them a hug."

She and a core of 15 volunteers have sent those hugs around the world, from the orphanages of Africa to the rubble of earthquakes in Haiti and Japan, from the ruins of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans to the destruction of the tsunami in Thailand.

A generous number of local agencies that serve children have received her blankets, as well: homeless children at the Mustard Seed School, for example, and preemies at Sutter Medical Center's neonatal intensive care unit.

Sewing machines fill a spare bedroom in King's cozy home, along with stacks of completed blankets that need tying with pretty ribbon before being distributed to children and families.

"We have workdays," King said. "I'll get six or seven volunteers, and we'll come in and set up card tables and machines. We do a sack lunch, and we get lots done."

But this year, donations of fabric and funds for Gramma's Hugs have been slow to trickle in.

"Everybody's just up against it," King said. "The contributions have been so small this year that I don't have material to make blankets for the homeless."

It's a small request: The nonprofit needs enough money to buy many yards' worth of inexpensive cotton flannel and fleece to keep children warm at night this winter.

"I've always been a socially minded person, especially about the problems of young people," King said. "I didn't have a good childhood myself. It's not that it was bad. It was hard. I didn't have anything extra, ever.

"I've been through things that have given me empathy for young people going through things by themselves. I have three beautiful children now. This is sort of a way to give back.

"I feel the more I can do and give, the more it will bounce around and multiply."

Needed: Thousands of yards of flannel and fleece material. Total: $6,000

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