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By Rose Hooper
Many children around the world will stay warm this winter, thanks
to the busy fingers of Jackson County knitters.
This month the group completed its 500th sweater for the Guideposts
Sweater Project. The ladies ship their sweaters to Guideposts
who, in turn, ship the sweaters around the world.
Patsy McGuire, standing, shows off one of the completed children's
sweaters a local group of knitters will ship to the Guideposts
Sweater Project. McGuire and other Jackson County knitters including,
from left, Nan Smith, Betty Jean Ashbrook and Polly Young, have
knitted 500 sweaters, sizes 2 to 12, since March 2001. Guideposts
distribute the sweaters worldwide to help keep children warm this
winter. Herald photo by Rose Hooper
"In America's inner cities, Appalachian coal fields and
Indian reservations in Montana and the Dakotas, children are wearing
warm sweaters from our needles," said Polly Young.
"I was glad to just learn that our sweaters
have even been provided to families of deployed military personnel
in Iraq," said local resident Polly Young, one of a group of local
knitters who contribute children's sweaters to the Guideposts
project.
"I was glad to just learn that our sweaters
have even been provided to families of deployed military personnel
in Iraq," said Young, who first heard about the sweater project
in 1999.
That year she picked up her knitting needles and spare yarn to
knit "just a sweater or two for a good cause." She has
hardly put them down since.
Meanwhile, she's encouraged recruits along the way, like Betty
Jean Ashbrook, Polly Fuller and her daughter Kay Mitchel, Patsy
McGuire, Violet Vassian, Peggy Leitch, Agnes Harrell, Susan Smith,
Elsa Edwards and Nan Smith.
"We couldn't do it without all the wonderful people who donate
yarn," said Young. "We come by it in so many ways. One
morning Polly Fuller found a big box of yarn somebody had anonymously
left on her porch."
The sweater colors depend on the donations and demonstrate each
members' creativity.
"I would never have thought to knit purple and aqua together,
but look how well this turned out," McGuire said about one
of their group's uniquely-patterned finished products.
"Except for raising my children this is the most rewarding
project I have ever done," said Young.
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