Knitting4Children Knitathon 2009

I am taking a short break from the 2008 Christmas postings for a word from one of my charity knitting organizations. Today I will be working on a schedule for the annual Knitathon that Knitting4Children, which is a group on Yahoo that I've been working with for at least nine years, holds in honour of its founder. The following description of the Knitathon is from Becky Carter, who is the head of the group...

"Knitting 4 Children was started in 1999 by Lorraine Kretzmer, a talented knitter
and new grandma. In 2000 she was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. As her
illness progressed, I had the honor of taking over the list. In early 2001, in
an effort to help us deal with Lorraine's declining health, we decided to have a
Knitathon in her honor. Our plans were to have someone from our list knitting at
all times during a 24 hour period to let her know we were thinking of her. We
chose Sunday, January 7, 2001 as the day.

As I often say, truth is stranger than fiction. At shortly after 1:00 pm on
January 7, while surrounded by her real life family, Lorraine passed away. Her
cyber family at Knitting4Children, knitted in her honor while she passed from
this life. Every year since we have designated a day to hold a Knitathon in her
honor.

On this day members sign up for a time slot and we make sure we have someone
knitting for charity for every minute of a 24 hour period. Patti, who
homeschools her children, has moderated this event and used it as a geography
lesson for her kids. It is a great bonding experience for us as a group, and a
special way to honor our founder. It is also interesting to see where everyone
is knitting!"

It is hard to believe that we have been doing this since 2001. I remember having the kids stick pins into the maps on the kitchen wall to show the locations of our members who, by now, I can pretty well remember from year to year. Gee, and that only took maybe 6 or 7 years to get into my tiny brain. Okay, that does exclude Margaret from Adelaide, Australia, who I never forget. We also have a member in New Zealand. The challenge of having members all over the globe is that I get to figure out what time they are knitting here on the East Coast when they are halfway across the globe. It is actually lots of fun to plan this out and it keeps my geographic and mathematical skills sharp. Whenever possible, I get the kidlets to help with the time zones and, of course, it counts as schooltime.

So, now I shall begin the scheduling and also contemplate what I would like to work on for Sunday's Knitathon. My donations stay local - usually going to Birthright. But that's the nice thing about our organization. You can either donate to the charities that we support as a group, or you can donate locally. As long as you are knitting for some sort of children's charity, you get to count your items toward our yearly totals. One suggestion has been made to do chemo caps in Lorraine's honour and that sounds like a good plan to me. I will probably scope out the need for them at the children's hospitals nearby. Lord knows I have the stash to make them!

So, this year my charity knitting will pretty much be centered on the K4C projects and Friends of Pine Ridge Reservation. I'll be posting pictures of the completed projects, possibly once monthly in order to keep me motivated. Please take a look at the websites for these two groups if you would like to become involved in knitting or crocheting for these worthy causes.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming...otherwise known as the Dilettante's Dilemma.

Facebook...And You Thought It Was Just a Social Network

I will admit that I joined Facebook just for fun and because the Jacksonville office had started a group and I wanted to see what they actually looked like. I mean, answering the phone gave me the unique capability of knowing who was calling by identifying the appropriate voice but putting faces with them was impossible. So, having only met about a half dozen of the Jax people, I finally could see who those wacky creatives were.

Another perk was that I actually reconnected with a few of my high school friends (yes, from back in the dark ages when it was still safe to go to school downtown). And I even have a Facebook friend who I went to school with (get this) back in Los Angeles from 1st to 3rd grade.

So, yes, I thought the social aspect of Facebook was lots of fun and I became addicted fairly quickly. When I started my knitting/quilting business I thought that I could benefit from having made lots of friends there - I can post pictures of my finished projects quickly and easily so, voila, instant free advertising! It's all good (as Herbal from Dark Angel would say).

So, the other day, I found someone I had met years ago when Heather was high school age and she apprenticed at the Gateway Mask and Mime Theatre down in Little Five Points. Also, Caitlin did some Irish dancing for them at an Irish Christmas party...I vaguely remember Mummers and singing What Do You Do With a Drunken Sailor...weird selective memory. Anyway, who knows how anyone finds people on Facebook but I guess I just started clicking one thing which led to another and bam! there was a familiar face. I found John Jaramillo so I decided to send him an "Add Friend" request. Fortunately, he obliged and here's where the awesome Facebook perk kicks in.

For those of you who knew my mom, the fact that I inherited an entire closet of yarn from her (all acrylic) would not surprise you in the least. Right? And, for those of you who know me (and why would you be reading this if you didn't?) you know that I've been doing charity knitting since I think Caitlin was a baby. Most of my items are baby things and they usually go to Birthright as I've known Terry Weaver, the U.S. National Director, for many, many years. In fact, I have a pretty good-sized stash of things to take them this month. Mom always had a soft spot for the Native Americans and she would donate to every American Indian organization that managed to get her on their mailing list, I think. (BTW, I just visited Wikipedia and will admit that I didn't realize that Native American does not only apply to the American Indians, but also Native Alaskans, Native Hawaiians, and several other groups.) Now, how does this tie in with Facebook and reconnecting with John, you ask? (of course you do; inquiring minds want to know)

Well...knowing John is a performer of Aztec dances and his background is Pueblo Indian Native American (and please go to his website to check him out - he does wander back to the Atlanta area occasionally) I asked him where I could donate knitted goods to benefit a reservation that needed help. John immediately suggested that the neediest reservations were in South Dakota and the Friends of Pine Ridge Reservation would be worth looking into. The description from the website listing numerous charities said: "An online group of volunteers who support the Native American community of Pine Ridge by sewing, knitting, crocheting and donating desperately needed items." I found that they have a Yahoo group which I immediately joined.

Hopefully, you have figured out that Facebook has put me in touch with a charity that will benefit from both my mom's yarn and my knitting skills, and I can donate to them in her memory, thus proving that a silly little social networking site can serve a greater purpose in the grand scheme of things. It was pretty serendipitous that I found all this info so easily and I hope this will inspire some of my readers to remember those who have less than we do (even when the budget is squeezed until it just begs for mercy). I figure that my only cost involved in this project will be my time and postage and I can certainly spare a little of that to help keep somebody warm this winter.