When Smethport resident Dolores Schultz was searching for a charitable program that could be helped by the Thursday Knitters group, she decided their talents might best serve patients at Bradford Regional Medical Center.
With that in mind, the group, which meets at Bradford Area Public Library, decided to knit baby hats for infants in the obstetrics/maternity ward as well as chemotherapy hats and prosthetic items for mastectomy patients in the oncology department.
The knitting group, led by Phyliss Ross, has approximately a dozen members who meet weekly to work on knitting skills for personal use and community projects.
Schultz said she and her friends from the club were having coffee one day and pondering on charities that could be helped when one of the women said, ‘Dolores, we’re knitters, why don’t we knit some hats for the hospital.’”
Schultz said she and her friends are all in their 80s and “are game for different things to do.”
When they checked with the maternity unit at the hospital, they were told that preemie hats weren’t needed, but hats for newborn babies were in short supply.
“We decided to do this because we wanted to be of service to somebody,” Schultz explained.
The group, which has knitted dozens of infant hats in a variety of colors, plan to deliver the items to the maternity unit in the near future. Ross said one club member, Kathy Garrett, made the majority of the hats and had also delivered some to Olean (N.Y.) General Hospital’s maternity unit.
Bonnie McMillen, who is leading the project to make prosthetics for mastectomy patients, said the items are made throughout the country by a national group and their pattern can be found online. She said the items, which are placed in the brassieres of the patients, are aptly named “Knitted Knockers.”
“You can mail them in (to the national group), but we can use them around here, too,” McMillen said, noting the prosthetic items are a soft shell made from yarn and are stuffed with polyfill. She said the items, which are washable, are lighter than the commercial silicone prosthetics, which can be expensive to purchase.
“A lot of women said they don’t like them,” McMillen said of the commercial prosthetics. “I took my first batch (of knitted prosthetics) to the oncology department Monday.”
She noted the oncology department was pleased to receive the prosthetics as the unit had run out of them.
Ross said the knitters’ group would welcome additional knitted hats for babies as well as for chemotherapy patients and can provide additional information to all who want to help.
For more information on the group, or patterns for any of the projects, contact Ross by email at pjr13@verizon.net.
