Reacting to the response to a call for Squamish residents to help knit baby hats for a medical clinic in Kenya, Liz Scott, Rotary Club website co-ordinator, remarked on the ensuing overwhelming community response.
"Honestly, it's like the flood gates opened," she said with a laugh. "It's been absolutely amazing the response that we've received. It opened my eyes to the fact that you're never too old and it's never too small a project to contribute to."
All the fuss is centred on Knitting for Kenya, part of a Rotary project for the Miguta medical clinic in Kenya. With humble beginnings as a dispensary in a dilapidated building that lacked even the basics of running water, the Squamish Rotary Club has partnered with a Rotary club in Kenya and has been successful through fundraising and a grant to garner $50,000 to transform the facility into a medical clinic operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Housing a maternity clinic as well, it is hoped this clinic will help to reduce infant mortality in the region, Scott said.
Local Rotarian Sheri Davis was responsible for obtaining the grant money for the project. "She was the catalyst who got this all going," said Scott, "and she stuck with it through all kinds of trials and tribulations to make it happen."
Kenya is certainly no stranger to Davis. This will be her seventh trip to the country.
"What inspired me is that it was respecting what the local community said they needed," said Davis, who identified the Miguta medical clinic project during her last trip to Kenya in 2009. "It's an example of what can happen when a community is invested in a project.
"We wanted to find a way to let the Squamish community know [of the project] and engage them in it as well," Davis said of her idea to donate baby hats to the new clinic, adding that it was a donation that wouldn't have a negative impact on the local economy.
"So, it just kind of snowballed from there," said Scott, adding that her 18-year-old daughter got on the bandwagon, finding a baby hat pattern to post on the Rotary website and daring her mother to try to knit 50 baby hats.
It appears that some local residents were setting the bar even higher than that. Mae Thom is a feisty 80-year-old who has singlehandedly knitted an astounding 175 baby hats for Knitting for Kenya since the call went out in May.
"I really went gung-ho on it," she said with a chuckle. Thom's daughter travels overseas with her work and she informed her mother that on the 10- to 12-hour-long flights, she could knit a dozen hats and gave her some hints to speed up her work. Thom followed her advice and soon was knitting up a storm, producing one an hour. "I get up early," she said, "and I'd often have two or three done before my husband got up."
Admitting she was in her glory, she has excitedly embraced the project.
"It makes me feel good and proud of myself to make hats for those babies," Thom said, and she is showing no signs of slowing down just yet. Which is fine, said Scott, adding that the Miguta project is ongoing and that there will always be a need for the baby hats.
Scott said she has collected most of the hats and claims to have more than 500 thus far. She will hand them over to Davis and two other Rotarians joining her, Pat Taylor and Ann Gawley, to attend the opening of the Miguta medical clinic at the end of September.
"I told the ladies, 'Don't plan on taking any clothes because your luggage is going to be full of baby hats,'" she laughed.
Scott added that she often gets asked why they need baby hats in Africa and she is well-versed in telling people that temperatures can drop down to five degrees at night in Africa so the hats are definitely warranted.
The outpouring of support has been quite remarkable, said Scott, who extended a heartfelt thanks to all who have contributed. Contact Scott on (604) 892-4961 for more information.
