Yarning for a Cause

In a quiet room at the Springfield Library, a small group of crafters meets once a week for a very big cause — they knit and crochet warm, soft hats to send to premature babies, soldiers serving on ships, people battling cancer, homeless families, and children and teens in need.

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2016-12-02 / Front Page Yarning for a Cause Knitters create handmade hats for charitable organizations By TORY JONES toryb@eagletimes.com Phaedra Mintun, left, and Janice Izo work on crochet hats they will send to charitable organizations across the U.S. that help cancer patients, premature babies, families in need and soldiers serving overseas. — TORY JONES Phaedra Mintun, left, and Janice Izo work on crochet hats they will send to charitable organizations across the U.S. that help cancer patients, premature babies, families in need and soldiers serving overseas. — TORY JONES SPRINGFIELD — In a quiet room at the Springfield Library, a small group of crafters meets once a week for a very big cause — they knit and crochet warm, soft hats to send to premature babies, soldiers serving on ships, people battling cancer, homeless families, and children and teens in need. “Sometimes a homemade item makes a difference,” said Springfield resident Phaedra Mintun. Mintun started the group to create and send meaningful, helpful handmade gifts to charitable organizations. The group, dubbed “Yarning for a Cause,” includes about four volunteers at this time. Mintun, who is a writer and works from home, said she started the group after moving to Springfield with her husband Tom about a year ago. She thought it would be a good way to both get out more and meet people, and also to help those in need while inviting community members to take part. “I like to craft, and sometimes I don’t have a purpose for it,” she said. For that reason, she often donates her crafted items to nonprofit organizations. Mintun comes from a creative family. She learned to crochet at age 3 from her grandfather’s second wife, Letta, who made beautiful crochet lace and starched snowflakes. “I was quiet and patient and interested,” she said. Her mother was also a talented seamstress, and her Nana, Shirley Rose Maubach, was a dancer who would “dance while she cooked,” Mintun said. Mintun said she has been crafting for charitable organizations for many years, since she was in her early 20s. She has made handcrafted items for anti-cruelty societies, such as 100 kennel pads in one year, she said. Muntin picked the library as the meeting location because it had “great space,” she said. She contacted the library director, Amy Howlett, for permission to host the group there. “She was very open to the idea,” Mintun said. She put up flyers inviting others to join her, and picked five nonprofit charities who could help distribute the hats. Christmas at Sea provides hats for soldiers currently serving on a U.S. vessel, and often in cold and windy conditions. Knots of Love gives hats to cancer patients, and the Preemie Project provides tiny, soft hats for babies born prematurely. Hats 4 the Homeless, a New York-based organization, hands out hats and warm clothing to homeless persons. The group also makes hats for the Santa Express, an organization that sends a train through the Appalachian Mountain ranges, handing out gifts and warm outerwear to children and teens. “It’s so poverty-stricken that many children live there without electricity,” she said. “For a lot of kids, it is the only present they get.” Group member Janice Izo was at the library with Mintun on Wednesday, Nov. 29, working on a deep brown and rust-colored crochet hat. Izo, who works at the local high school, learned to crochet and sew from her grandmother Francis Meehan, a widow with five children. Her grandmother used to make covers, curtains and wedding cakes to bring in income after her husband died in World War I, she said. Izo said she saw the group meeting announcement in a newspaper about a month after it started, and began taking part. She also realized that Mintun was her neighbor, she laughed. “It’s nice and calm, relaxed, and I’m doing something constructive,” Izo said. “I love the library anyway.” Mintun provides all the yarn, which she keeps in labeled plastic storage totes and brings to each session, along with crochet hooks, knitting needles, and patterns. She pays for all the yarn and supplies out of her pocket, but it helps the organizations because some of them have strict regulations or requirements, she said. For instance, the Preemie Project hats must be made of only new, soft yarn that has not been exposed to pet hair or smoke, to protect the newborns. “I wanted to make sure we could still provide hats for them,” she said. “This way, there would be no cost for the people (taking part).” Some organizations such as Christmas at Sea and Hats 4 the Homeless have no rules for the yarn, and accept any warm hat donation. Each organization posts its guidelines on its webpage, she said. Mintun said she picked hats as the item to knit for this year’s efforts because they are fairly quick to make. It takes about an hour to make one hat, or to make two or three “preemie” hats because they are so tiny, she said. It took a couple of months while she sat at the library alone. Since then, participants have been trickling in, she said. The group may have up to four people at a time working on hats each Wednesday evening from 6 to 7 p.m. at the library, and she is hopeful that more take part. There is no cost to participate. Once a box is full, it is shipped to the nonprofit organization. Mintun said she has just shipped a “big box” each to Christmas at Sea and the Santa Train, and a smaller box each to the Preemie Project and Hats 4 the Homeless. Now, the group is working on next year’s boxes, she said. She plans to keep the group going next year, and may go on to make other items. “We’ll use up the yarn, and then we’ll see,” she said. For more information or to take part, drop in on Wednesday evenings at the library at 43 Main St., or call Mintun at (802) 289-2604 or email phaedrarain@gmail.com. For other events taking place at the Springfield Town Library, visit http://www.springfieldtownlibrary.org.