Anchorage Daily News

Summer is a time for fun, picnics and good friends. When you are a knitter in Anchorage, summertime fun, good picnic food and warm friends who also love yarn can be found at the July guild meeting.

Click to enlarge

Story tools

Comments

E-mail a friend

Print

Digg this

Seed Newsvine

Send link via AIM

Font size : A | A | A

This year's guild picnic was even more special than normal. For over six months, members of Knitters of the North have had a charity challenge project in the works making baby layettes for the Stork Project. The Stork Project was the brilliant idea of Marcia Baranow, maternal health coordinator for the Providence Family Medicine Center.

Alaska ranks 41 st in the United States in providing funding for programs that provide for medical care to low-income families. The State of Alaska's version of the SCHIP insurance program, Denali Kid Care, is severely underfunded, resulting in big holes in our social safety net for pregnant women, some of whom are homeless as well. Providence Family Medicine Center is where these mothers-to-be are finding their obstetrical care.

Baranow realized that not only did these financially challenged women need medical services, they also needed moral support through the already stressful time of becoming a mother. For some women, this could include the simple act of receiving a baby gift.

For many families this gift may be the only new items they will have for their infants. Since the creation of the Stork Project, over 100 layettes have been given by medical center employees and doctors along with little tags that say the gifts are from their family doctor and the community. Knitters of the North has included its own special tags with its contributions, as well.

Baranow originally thought there would only be a few items of baby clothing at any one time. Then the community began to offer its contributions: diaper bags sewn of vintage fabrics, hand-quilted blankets, crochet and knitted blankets, knitted and crocheted baby sweaters for girls and boys, hats, dozens of booties, boxes of diapers, toiletries and even suitcases filled with little T-shirts and onesies. A reader in Virginia was inspired enough to mail the clinic a box of baby things for the project.

The staff at the clinic coordinates the items into completed baby layettes for a girl or for a boy. The gifts are placed into plastic zippered bags and are kept at the front desk to be given out when babies are seen at the clinic. I was present when new parents were presented with a Stork Project gift, and it so touched them; even the father cried. The inspirational stories have been the stuff of Hollywood movies, and the project has become a pet of the staff and doctors who work at the clinic.

Men and women from one ethnic group of patients, who are recipients of some of these baby gifts, began learning to knit and crochet so they could also contribute to the ever-growing piles of baby clothing. Many medical students who work at the teaching clinic have also begun to knit and crochet for the project. One elderly Alaska woman was so dedicated to this project that she kept knitting baby things right up until her death, which her daughter believes was delayed because of her mother's enthusiasm for this heartwarming and worthwhile charity. Readers from other states who want to begin a Stork Project in their own communities have even contacted me.

The need for baby layettes will continue, and with these uncertain economic times upon us the number of families needing these gifts will certainly increase. What happens when a group of knitting and fiber enthusiasts put their needles and hooks to work to make a difference? Happiness and love begin to spread throughout our community, our state and our country.

Catherine Hollingsworth, interior designer, artist and professional knitwear designer, has lived in Alaska for 18 years. She is interim president of the Alaska State Yarn Council and past president of Knitters of the North. To reach her, e-mail twosticks@adnmail.com.

STORK PROJECT: Mail or deliver items to the Stork Project, Attention: Marcia Baranow, maternal health coordinator, Providence Family Medicine Center, 1201 E. 36th Ave., Anchorage, AK 99508. Cash donations are also welcome. Make checks payable to Providence Foundation/Providence Family Medicine Center Account/OB. For more information e-mail twosticks@adnmail.com with "Stork Project" in the subject line.

KNITTERS OF THE NORTH GUILD masters and mentors meeting 1-3 p.m. Aug. 2, Kaladi Brothers conference room, 6921 Brayton Blvd., suite 105. Bring your knitting, ask questions or just find out what the "buzz" is about knitting. Free.

OPEN GUILD MEETING: 1-3 p.m. Aug. 9, Pioneer School House, lower level, Third and Eagle Street. For more information, call Janice Chulick at 561-3933 or visit groups.yahoo.com/group/Knitters_North.

IDIDACHAIN CROCHET GUILD: 10 a.m.-noon July 26, Lions Club clubhouse in Mountain View, Mountain View Drive. For more information, call Debbie Meester at 562-1630 or Elaine Hollinger 1-907-373-2535.

ADVERTISEMENT