November 10, 2009

A Warm Gift
Project Keep Warm’s goal: a cozy hat for every child’s head

By Sam Craig
The Chronicle

     Their goals aren’t lofty. They’re not looking for fame and fortune. They’ve got one mission and they’re getting closer to completing it.
     Project Keep Warm wants to put a warm, hand-knit hat on the head of every kid in the Mid-Columbia area. Give them a couple more years and it might just happen.
     Last year, Project Keep Warm handed out about 700 hats across 13 towns in the gorge. This past Wednesday, after giving away in a single stop nearly as many as last year’s total, they had a car-full of knit hats left. And they’re not done knitting yet.
     Sue Craig, founder of Project Keep Warm, stopped by Chenowith Elementary in The Dalles on Nov. 4 with 500 hand-knitted and crocheted caps for chilly heads. Craig will be making the rounds to area schools and organizations over the course of the next few months to give out hats and other winter necessities.
“We had 500 hats for Chenowith Elementary,” Craig said. “I also have 500 hats in the car, plus mittens, for the Head Start program. Plus, I still have enough at home, probably, for another 300 children and blankets for infants.”
     With morning mercury levels already dipping below freezing, that early walk to school can be an ear-stinging experience. The women behind the scenes at Project Keep Warm work through all four seasons, knowing that winter is coming, and they need to be ready.
     “Myself and five other grandmas spend our year making hats for all the children that we can find,” Craig said. “We spend all year working on it, and as soon as the weather starts to get cold, then we come looking for children to put the hats on.”
     Going into their 11th year, Project Keep Warm began when Craig’s 3-year-old grandson was enrolled in the Head Start program in The Dalles. She noticed a need for warm hats, and she got to knitting. Since then, the project has just kept picking up steam as it rolls along.
     A story about Project Keep Warm ran in The Chronicle last year and, Craig said, began a cycle of donations that bolstered the program immensely. Skeins of yarn and fully made hats, scarves, blankets and mittens began pouring in, she said. People really wanted to help them out.
     “People are still talking about that story,” she said. “I would say, based on the article, we have had double the donations from last year. And as a result, we have doubled the amount of hats we have made. Last year we made about 500 hats and the scarves, mittens and blankets. This year we’re at 1,300 hats and the other things, but it’s so early in the year that for the next six weeks we’re still going to be able to make another 300 or 400 hats and get them out.”
     Even though they’ve got enough material to make their quota for this year, next year they’ll still need to prepare another batch. They’re always looking for donations because they’re knitting year round.
     “Right now people start to think about being cold,” she said. “But we really do our push in the hot months, so that we’re ready come cold weather.”
     Craig would like to see the program expand further into Wasco, Hood River and Klickitat counties. She’s providing hats to kids in all three counties, but she really doesn’t want to see one kid shivering.
     “My ultimate goal would be to provide for all of the children in the area,” Craig said. “It would be nice if I could cover every child in The Dalles and in Head Start, at least. And I’d like more people that could help us make things, but I’ve got some people that are pretty prolific with what they do. There’s six of us, but almost all of the hats are made by just three people. That’s a lot of work.”
     The three women, Craig said, can produce between one and four hats a day. That’s a lot of tired fingers, so they’re always looking for more people to pitch in.
     “Even if they want to make one hat, two hats, three hats, that would be great,” she said. “It doesn’t take a full year of commitment. If people want to make just one, that’s fine, it all adds up.”
     To donate material or knitting skills, contact Craig at (541) 298-2937.