The Gift of Giving

Numbers generally have not been a favorite of mine. However, I feel that numbers do a fairly stellar job of portraying the gift of giving for all those connected to Caring Caps.

The people helping Carings Caps in any fashion have been absolutely crucial to its success.  After tallying up all of the knitters and crocheters, I found that 49 people created a total of 174 items. They varied in age range, mindset, and location, among countless other traits. However, they all came together under the cause of helping Clark County's impoverished and/or homeless citizens.

While each yarn-crafter brought with them a unique, individual story, this is a woman whom, I believe, touches anyone's heart who discovers her. Jackie, an older friend, lives with Alzheimers disease, and its cruel effects. As a younger woman, she was an avid knitter. However, as this malady further ran its course, this skill and love slipped away with many other mental facets.  However, change for the better changed Jackie's course because of her involvement with Caring Caps. Her caretaker and a fellow church member, read about Caring Caps' mission in our newsletter and took an immediate interest.  A knitter herself, she quickly made her own contribution.  Thinking of Jackie,  Gertrude brought several packages of yarn and needles the next time she visited the older woman. Confused by the items surrounding her, Jackie stuck the needles into the yarn - and did nothing else.  Gertrude returned the next day, though. Instead of bringing the supplies in their store-bought appearance.  She handed Jackie a single ball of yarn with the pair of knitting needles, and the afflicted woman picked up her old passion as if she had never quit it. Jackie made three gorgeous scarves, each without even one dropped stitch or pattern mistake. Even greater than her gift to three people in the community is the gift that resulted from her work.  Jackie's family noticed marked changes in her mental state. While she still faces numerous challenges posed by Alzheimers, she and her family were thankful beyond words for the great strides she made.

This is one of the many back stories that have woven themselves into the Caring Caps project.  I am so grateful to my group of close friends who helped me to wrap and tag each of these special handmade gifts with the logo that my friend, Hannah, made, and was used on the Caring Caps holiday card.  There were three knitting groups who worked very hard on this project.  The ladies at Rosemary Brooks created about 40 of these special gifts.  The ladies at the Clark County Homeless Shelter created over 70 handemade items. I had the joy of participating in their knitting group each week and they have touched my life with their generosity during a time when their own lives were, and still are, facing challenges.  Girl Scout troop 652 was an extreme joy as I got to to know and to watch them. They learned that they have skills to help make a difference to others, which is a huge gift for both girls of their age, and those far older. A large number of individual yarn-crafters worked from their homes to make special gifts for others and to make sure they were delivered to me in time for them to be included in the project.  The stories that will not be known are the lives that are being touched by these 174 handmade items.   I know that I will be watching for some smiles on Clark County faces who are kept warm on these winter days by a handmade Caring Cap or scarf.

Troop 652 - Round Two!!

The girls of troop 652 modeled some of the finished hats and scarves after they worked on the projects they've been making! Many of them turned in an item, or plan to finish one by next Friday!

In the Holiday Spirit

When I was an extremely young child, Thanksgiving was a reason to paint your hand brown, stick it on a piece of contstruction paper, and make a turkey for your parents. It was an excuse to hype yourself up on sugar and carbs with family. I was a pint-sized package of energy, ready to bounce off of my grandparents' walls.

While I have always realized that Thanksgiving is much more than a stuff-your-face break from school, or especially, just a pre-emptive strike on Black Friday, it took me a good number of years to truly have the message of Thanksgiving land with a THUNK right in front of my eyes.

The thing about Thanksgiving is that it is nowhere near as simple as it is presumed to be. It is a time to be thankful, yes, but to limit it to that is a sin of its own kind. Knowledge not put into action does nothing. In a world of such infinite, earth-shattering need, complacent inactivity is as destructive as any intentional greed or malfeasance. For this reason, as well as many others, any person who has a mind coupled with such morals and knowledge cannot resign themselves to complacent living.

So, whether or not your turkey (or other entree of choice) has been carved yet and devoured, let your heart, mind, and soul consume the second half of this holiday's name: Giving.

Tick. Tock.

The essential parts of a handmade gift are the thoughts, care and prayers that comprise a person’s creation of the gift.  When I am making a gift for a friend, I take delight in choosing just the right materials that I think they will find appealing.  I think about the gift of their friendship, and the meaning that they bring to my life. During the time I am creating their gift, I think about the time that we spend together.

A Caring Caps hat or scarf takes a minimum of 10 hours, 600 minutes or 36,000 seconds to create.  It is during this act of creation that caring thoughts that are offered up for the children, women, and men in our community who are in need. As Caring Caps volunteers we are concerned that there are those in our community who are hungry, cold and in need. With 33 completed projects, that means that over 1,188,000 seconds have been put into caring for others in our community. The Caring Caps Project is about making loving handmade gifts for those in need.  More importantly, it is about increasing awareness of the issues of poverty in our community and calling everyone to be willing to do their part to make a difference.

Over 25 people are now actively making hats and scarfs for Caring Caps. Most of their gifts are not completed. I am eagerly anticipating the increasing numbers of handmade gifts for this holiday season that will be donated to Operation Happiness.  Next week, a third group is going to start the journey of learning to knit in love.  Even if you never pick up a pair of knitting needles, a crochet hook or a knitting loom, I hope that you will find time to care about others around you. Time spent caring for others can change the lives of others as well as your life!  There is no greater meaning in the time you spend.

Tick. Tock. Hurry - time is passing.

Clark County's First Annual Knit-In!

Caring Caps Logo
Design By: Hannah Leedy

On October 20^th, 2012, Clark County’s first annual Knit-In took place at the Clark County Public, or CCPL – and you missed out if you weren’t there. It was located in library’s small conference room, and was scheduled to be from 10 AM to 2 PM. People as young as six months old, to those far beyond showed up with eager hands and hearts. Some came to engage in a favorite hobby, and some to learn a new one. Regardless of their experiences and skill-levels with knitting and crocheting, everybody there wanted to knit or crochet so they could use their skill to help others. Lasting an hour past its predicted run-time, the Knit-In continued as we all got lost in the food, clicking hooks and needles, and connecting words being shared. We laughed, munched muffins, cookies, and brownies, and excitedly progressed on our projects. Many people stopped by and contributed to the event, each in their own fashion. One woman told us that she didn’t want to learn loom-knitting – she wanted “to be one of those grandmas sittin’ on the front porch, clickin’ away with her needles and yellin’ at the kids to STOP!” She couldn’t stay for lessons that day, but gave us her contact information, and left with a desire to learn something new. A donation for supplies was made, and one of the CCPL staff popped in on us to see what was really going on. Within a few minutes, she was laughing and smiling with the rest of us.

Yet, far more powerful than hours of knitting and crocheting were the words exchanged; stories of past struggles, tales of blissful friendships, and, most of all, varied accounts that motivated these people to help others swirled about the room. These people are the proof that when one person sees or hears about another person who is struggling, they do not wish to sit idly by; they want to help.

Caring Caps is still continuing its original mission, and, for those who want to help, there are still plenty of opportunities. You can contact me to schedule a knitting or crocheting class, donate to the project, either monetarily, or by purchasing supplies for someone who cannot afford them by their own means; create and donate a handmade-gift independently; request a list of needed items for the Clark County Homeless Coalition and Clark County Community Services; or donate food, clothing, toys, or other needed items. Most of all, though, we must each take it upon ourselves to absorb the realities of those in our community who are entrenched in need and struggle, and to, then, find our own ways to improve their situations.   

How Do You Measure Love?

It's an age-old question that has been asked in many different forms. RENT, the Broadway musical went as far as writing a song to ask and answer it. I'm going to borrow a page from their book: How do you measure love?
In Caring Caps' case, love is beginning to find measure throughout the community. Two knitting groups are actively making projects, and are exponentially increasing their donations in number. A week ago, fifteen projects had been completed from all of the groups and participants; as of yesterday  - exactly one week later - twenty-four projects have been finished! A third group has signed up for knitting lessons, and I will be teaching them in November. Yarn donations are being provided and volunteers are springing up and committing themselves to helping with next Saturday's knit-in. A talented friend of mine is even designing a logo for Caring Caps. People of all walks of life are finding a connection to this project, and discovering a way that they can be a part of it.
The question now becomes, not, "How do you measure love," but "How will you give love?" 

Recent years have brought varied struggles to all of us, as humans and as American citizens, but they have been especially hostile to those without adequate resources. The winter holidays can leave them feeling forgotten if we do nothing to alter their circumstances. There are boundless opportunities to improve others’ quality of life. My contribution is starting, Caring Caps, an on-going program that warms the holidays by producing handcrafted items that will be distributed through Operation Happiness.

To generate excitement about Caring Caps, the Clark County library has been gracious enough to act as host to the first annual Clark County Knit-In.. There will be food and refreshments, knitters and crocheters scattered about the library, instructions for yarn-crafted projects, and informative pieces about local service organizations.

Tell everyone you know about the Knit-In - and show up!

Progress!!

I have a friend for whom words and oxygen are in constant competition. On a daily basis, I'm always trying to drag her out of the lunch room so that we won't be late for French. I reiterate to her, "Forward motion is a wonderful thing."

I'm truly excited to say that while my friend is still working on the idea of "forward motion," Caring Caps seems to have captured it in the blink of an eye! People are finding various ways to participate in it: A local group of yarn-crafters have committed themselves to either knitting or crocheting for two hours every Friday. On September 28th, we had the first finished project of the group, and it was magical. As this was the woman's first project, there were mistakes that she had made. Although no one else would know about them, she had deemed those tiny displays of non-uniformity as just enough cause to keep her first project for herself. Yet, as my mom and packed up our supplies to go home, I noticed the woman's child-like glee as she tried on her steel blue cowl. I didn't stop to praise the incredibly fast forward "motion that" she had made for the umpteenth time; I let her bask in the moment that was warm like summer sunshine that drips and permeates slowly into your skin, and quietly slipped out behind my mother.

Countless others are weaving themselves into the fabric of Caring Caps, and each person is bringing something dazzlingly unable to be duplicated. Parents of my friends have offered to help cover costs of yarn and needles, and members of the Brooks Place Knitters have agreed to help add to the number of donations. Loads of help in the schematics of Caring Caps is coming in, too. Several staff at the Clark County Public Library are helping me with advertising ideas, blocking off time to use a room, and fixing technical errors and problems. The team is growing, but it's missing someone: You.

Current Donations

                                 This is a picture of the donations that have been made so far!

Beginnings

An overwhelming mass of people live without the slightest consideration of the effects their life will leave, or without allowing those thoughts to change their actions. I am fifteen years old, and can't say I've done anything that has been world-shattering or mind-blowing. Some may say that kind of existence is normal. Settling for normality has never been like me, though, and that's one thing that is not going to change.
These are the kinds of thoughts and ponderings that have lead me to begin Caring Caps, my Girl Scout Gold Award Project. Caring Caps is an acronym for Citizens Answer Real Issues Giving Care And Personal Security. I have designed this project to address homelessness and poverty in my community, as well as to educate the public about these issues. Through Caring Caps, people are to knit and crochet items for donation to Operation Happiness, a winter holiday service program. People in need will be appreciative of store-bought gifts, which may be necessary to their survival; they will be shocked and captivated by the gesture of handmade gifts filled with time, love, and compassion. Winter holidays can be especially tough for those who are impoverished or homeless. While the season can be filled with giving, it can also be an inundation of commercialism, and being forgotten, as those who have helped them return to their families, consumed by the hustle and bustle of holiday traditions - and the chaotic, whirlwind that is life. Thus, such a seemingly insignificant action, like giving a handmade item, can instill in someone that there are people who care about them, and are working to make their lives better. For these reasons, I am teaching knitting and crocheting classes at the Clark County library in Winchester, Kentucky. It is my hope that participants in the classes and in the overall project will explore the art of  knitting and crocheting to share with others.  More importantly, I hope that with information about the plight of the homeless and impoverished around us, that each person will have a mindset of resurgent change, aid, and action. This is project that is just taking flight -it's in its baby stage, if you will. In order for it to be successful, it needs people. So get involved, and tell everyone you know about it! If you do, the extension of its benefits could be endless.
I may not change the world in such a world-renowned fashion that my name echoes the history books - or blog pages - for eons to come, but if I can change the life of just one person for the better, then I cannot find a reason to be unsatisfied; if every person looks deep enough within themselves, I believe they will find the same thing to be true, too.

Blog-In-Progress

This blog is under construction! Stay tuned! :)