Arlington Heights knitting class helps mothers in need
The women who meet every Monday morning in the arts and crafts room at the Arlington Heights Senior Center think of their classes as something of a knitting circle.
Sure, they registered for a knitting and crocheting class through the Arlington Heights Park District, but most of them also enjoy the weekly camaraderie of being together and working for a cause.
They all point to their teacher, Anna Hoffman of Arlington Heights, as their inspiration. Not only can she sew circles around them, so to speak, but her upbringing in rural Scotland during World War II resonates with them.
Hoffman describes learning to knit as a 5-year-old in school. The year was 1945, when the Allies had already occupied Germany.
"We learned to knit 6-inch squares that our teachers made into blankets," Hoffman says. "We were told we were making them for the poor German children."
Fast forward about 70 years, and Hoffman still is making blankets for children, and so are her students.
Each year, she encourages her knitters and crocheters - who come from Arlington Heights, Mount Prospect, Palatine, Park Ridge, Rolling Meadows and Schaumburg - to make not only blankets, but infant sweaters, caps and bootees.
"My children are grown," says Connie Wujcik of Itasca, "so I love doing this for mothers that really need them."
They donate them to a group called INFANT, which distributes their blankets and sweaters in layettes with other baby supplies to new mothers in need.
Their latest batch amounted to more than 30 sets in all different colors and assortments. The women finished them up last week, and next week INFANT volunteers will come by to pick them up.
The Winnetka-based agency was started in 1983 by a group of alumnae of Immaculata High School, class of 1949. Now, many of their daughters carry on the mission of providing emergency supplies of baby formula to food pantries, shelters and other social service agencies.
As an extension of their mission, the group also delivers the layettes for needy mothers identified by social workers.
Lisa Iberle, one of INFANT's volunteers, received a call last week from a social worker at Catholic Charities in Waukegan. She asked for one of the group's layettes for a mother with a 3-week old baby.
Each layette contains diapers, bottles, receiving blankets, some clothes and a small stuffed animal. When possible, INFANT also includes the hand-knit items.
"On the very top is one of those beautiful knit blankets made by the women from the Senior Center," Iberle says. "It's the first thing the mother sees when she opens the basket."
Last year, INFANT delivered nearly 200 layettes and more than $100,000 worth of formula to more than 50 centers across the city and suburbs. So far this year, the group has delivered 142 layettes.
All of which continues to drive the women at the Arlington Heights Senior Center, who are the largest contributors of handmade items to INFANT.
"I know that when I had my children, anything that was handmade, I kept," says Judy L'Amoureux of Arlington Heights. "They were always special."