FREEPORT – When Sukie Rice and Ann Foster got the word out that they were looking for blankets to send to Afghan refugees in Pakistan, they thought they might get 500. They never imagined they would receive three times that.

“This has been overwhelming, marvelously overwhelming,” Rice said. “People took it on as their own, as something they really wanted to do.”

The collection began just about a month ago under the direction of Rice of Freeport and Foster of Peaks Island, members of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization.

Rice and Foster, along with a core group of volunteers, set up collection boxes in the Portland area and spread the word they were looking for blankets.

At the Community Center on Lower Main Street on Monday, 16-year-old Jake Freund hefted a chunky plastic bag onto a pile of bags and boxes that nearly reached the ceiling. He smiled at the accomplishment: hundreds of blankets, packed and ready to be shipped out.

“This is great,” Freund said, gesturing to the tower of fabric.

The 1,500 blankets will be trucked to Philadelphia, where the national arm of the American Friends will deliver them to Pakistan, and to the Afghan refugees there bracing for a harsh winter.

Rice said American Friends chose to send blankets to Pakistan, rather than clothing, because blankets are universal.

“Western-style clothing is not necessarily appreciated or worn,” she said. “As much as we all have spare parkas, boots – American clothing – that doesn’t mean it will be appreciated.”

Blankets, though, can be used for anything, she said, from bedding to a shawl. Although most blankets are used, some are brand-new and Freund thinks that is wonderful.

“It’s going to keep a lot of people warm,” he said.