More than four years ago Bette's Knitting Circle, Friends who care, started knitting and crocheting for many organizations around the Long Island, Manhattan and New Jersey Communities. Many beautiful babies sweaters, hats, mittens, booties and blankets along with men, women and children's hats and scarves were donated to Long Island Cares, Inc., The Salvation Army of East Northport, Brighter Tomorrows, Inc., Options for Community Living, Inc
Preemie hats and blankets were donated to the NICU Unit at NYU Medical Center in Manhattan. Lap blankets were donated to Gurwin Jewish Geriatric and Rehabilitation Nursing Center in Commack, NY. Lap blankets also went to our Veterans in East Northport. Pink hats and scarves went to Huntington Breast Cancer Action Coalition in Huntington, NY, among many other organizations.
Our group of wonderful Ladies who knit and crochet continues to grow. Our Mission is to provide warmth and caring to those people in need. We have seen the look on the faces of the residents of Nursing Facilities who are comforted by our beautiful lap blankets. We have pictures of the preemie babies in our hand knit items. Our knitting group meets once on month on the second Tuesday at Gurwin. We share ideas and patterns and enjoy our time together as we knit and crochet for people in need.
I am writing to tell you about our group 'Knitting From The Heart". I teach knitting at our church in Hershey, Pa. and over the last couple of years we have knit sweaters for Knit For Kids, a Guidepost affiliation with World Vision. We have also sent sweaters, scarves, mittens and caps with our missionaries that go to Russia. We also help chemo patients, since I was also one this past year, with hats and head coverings for the Penn State Medical Center here in Hershey. We also knit caps for premature babies for York Hospital. We make lap blankets and prayer shawls for our Compassion ministery at our church. You can see we are quite busy and are always looking for ways to serve the Lord with our craft.
We are a group of crafters who knit and crochet 100% cotton hats for patients who have lost their hair due to cancer treatment. Our hats are always “free of charge”.
To date our group has donated over 15,000 hats and we have shipped to over 70 locations across Canada. The crafters basically work on their own, purchase their own cotton and we very much encourage them to donate to cancer centres and hospitals in their own community.
Many hats are dropped off to me directly and although we have a very small budget we manage to keep afloat so that funds are available for shipping.
Our mission statement is to “warm both the heads and hearts of patients” who have suffered hair loss resulting from their disease and treatment.
With each hat donated a tiny gift card is enclosed which says “Made especially for you by___________” the crafters puts their first name in this space. The inside reads “We’ve created this cap just for you…We hope it will make you smile, and we also send our best wishes too. May you be well in a very short while.
We are very proud of our group and what we have been able to accomplish since our inception in February of 2003.
All of our patterns, our story and a couple of pictures appear on our website www.getwellgang.ca
I knit winter hats for all of the children ages 3-5 who attend Glasgow Headstart Program.
This program is for children whose parents have little or no income to send them to a preschool. The nonprofit program feeds these children breakfast and lunch and provides them with much needed everyday guidance and learning. I average about 30 winter hats every year for them. I am also thinking about making each one of them scarves if I can find a friend to help me knit them. I work full time and am involved in other organizations, so my time is limited. It is such a thrill to see the kids get so excited when I deliver the hats to them. I make every one of them either different colors or some with stripes, so there are no two alike --- for them to each identify their own.
I am chair of the Interfaith Knitting Group in Leisure World in Silver Spring, MD. We are an organization of about 25 women – all seniors – who meet twice a month.We knit and crochet items for many organizations:
Preemie items for local hospitals
Baby items for new mothers- Gabriel Program
Lap robes for Salvation Army
Hat and scarf sets for Leisure World Women’s Club Christmas project – usually includes at least 25 families of a least three members or more
We mail items to three Churches/organizations:
Mt. Mission School in Grundy Va
St. Vincent Mission in David, Ky
Our Saviour Lutheran Church – Rocky Boy Indian Reservation in Box Elder, Mt
Head Start Program – local school – sweaters for 4-5 year olds
Last year we made shawls for the local women’s shelter.
Last year we made close to a 1000 items.
The Interfaith Chapel provides a stipend to buy some yarn and we get donations from residents of their leftover yarn. We sure could use a supply of new yarn for our projects. We mainly use baby yarn and four ply knitting worsted – (no wool yarn)
This is a great organization and a way for people that move into the community to get involved in serving the community and meeting their neighbors.
Our original group of eight came together in January 2006. Our first prayer shawl was presented in June 2006.
January 2010. Our group of knitters has grown to eighteen. We meet every Wednesday to knit the afternoon away and pray together as well as enjoy the fellowship with one another.
To date, we have presented over 250 shawls and lap robes. Plus, we have given 13 knitted baby blankets to a nearby hospital for families of stillborn babies. This is an ongoing project. Recently, we have given a dozen knitted "camo" scarves for the military.
Our shawls, lap robes, and scarves are given as a reminder that God cares and we do, too. We promise to pray for each person every Wednesday during our knitting meeting. We pray this ministry brings comfort and encouragement to each person.
We began this to touch others and we never imagined how we too would be so blessed.
Our group continues to grow as does our love and understanding of each other. We feel God has put us together to do this work.........what a blessing!
I do knitting for Guardian Angels when I started about 5 years ago it is now Welcome Wagon and the head office is located in Toronto,Ontario. Each Month I send them some knitted booties and Bonnetts for the preemie babies or newborns. They don't have a yarn supplier anymore but I still have some yarn to knit and send to them when I complete 5 sets. My inspiration for this was my daughter she was a preemie and when I was in the hospital to have her 22 years ago there was a tiny baby in the incubator it weighed only 3 pounds it didn't survive for long but they did everything they could to save it so that is my true story.
Our once a month Charity Night is such a huge success. This is our third year of running it on the first Monday of every month.
We have 11 Charities we now Knit and Crochet for. They include several organizations that we make Prayer Shawls and Lapghans for like The Healing Garden which helps women to spiritually and mentally cope with breast cancer.
The Blue Star Mothers is the women's side of the local Veterans Association. Every year at this time we drop off to them dozens of Lapghans, Helmet Liners and Neck Gators for our soldiers. They get delivered to Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washngton.
Our latest addition is to make Hacky Sacks and Dolls for the children in Haiti. We have a missionary that will be attending our June Charity night to tell us about his work. We are looking forward to it.
It really is a joy to give to those less fortunate. I have attached pictures of some of the things we make as well as one of the group pictures and some of the items we've made.
