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“It was cold out and he had a stack of blankets on him, probably two feet tall,” Deaton said. “And I thought, here I am in a warm car going home to a warm house and here he is. So I thought certainly there’s something (United Senior Services of Springfield) could do.”
The group of more than 20 seniors work for months to prepare the warm items for winter.
“We work all winter on this,” Deaton said. “We don’t meet until April, but all through the winter months we crotchet. This is an ongoing project. We don’t stop.”
Isabelle Thomas, a Blocks to Blankets knitter, said the project helps her more than the people who receive the blankets and hats.
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“Just doing this, I feel as if I am helping somebody maybe keep warm,” Thomas said.
Her husband died about three years ago, Thomas said, and her doctor told her she had to find something to do. So she decided to do something she’s done for most of her life.
“It’s one of the things that has helped me along the way and now I feel like I’m doing something worthwhile,” she said.
This year the group knitted and crocheted 428 blankets and 264 hats.
“We are giving them to different agencies in Springfield that take care of the homeless and also for people out of rehab,” Thomas said.
The items will go to organizations such as Interfaith, Project Woman, the Springfield Soup Kitchen, Open Hands, Bridget’s Hands and the Clark County Sheriff’s Office.
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Deputies were added to project this year. The items can console many people during their time of need, Clark County Sheriff’s Lt. Dustin White.
“Somebody watching their house burn up — that feeling in a time of need and to be able to go and get a blanket that’s been handmade, knitted and being able to give it to a victim at that time is so comforting,” White said.
That also could include children at crime scenes.
“It’s something that they can call their own,” White said. “They might not have any possessions so anything to warm the heart. We are here to serve people.”
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