The United Church of Jaffrey’s Giving Tree, where the church collects hats, mittens and scarves for community children, is getting an unexpected bounty this year – dozens and dozens of crocheted and knitted items made by the Jaffrey Woman’s Club over the past nine months.
Vicki Arceci, a member of the church and one of the organizers of the Giving Tree, said she couldn’t quite believe her ears when one of the church members, who is also a member of the club, called her up to arrange the donation – a total of 151 items.
Specifically, the donation consisted of 103 hats, 26 scarves, 15 pairs of mittens, three headbands and four headband-mitten sets.
“This is the largest donation we’ve ever received,” Arceci said.
The tree is an annual event, organized by the church’s Christian Social Concerns Committee, and usually gathers store-bought items from the congregation and occasional handmade items, but hasn’t had a group concentrating on creating items for months, as the woman’s club did.
“We don’t usually get this many,” Arceci said. “This is amazing, it really, really is.”
Cathy Mills, president of the woman’s club, said one of the tenants of the club is “to our community, our service,” but she said options for how to fill that mission were limited in the past year, with many people staying at home and fundraising events canceled. But she said the club decided to find a new way to continue that aspect of service.
“We were stuck at home, and needed to keep ourselves busy,” Mills said.
Several club members – Mills, Sue Sturges, Meredith Walker, Susan Schenck and Caren Lewis – started to meet weekly with the Jaffrey Recreation Department Knitting Club and started churning out hats and mittens, with the goal of gathering a sizable haul for the Giving Tree. Janice Beaulieu, a member of the knitting club, also contributed.
Some were more prolific than others, admitted Mills. Walker, a prodigious knitter, churned out 77 hats – more than half of the eventual pile of donations Mills turned over to Arceci last week.
The cozy knits will be distributed throughout the community, to the Jaffrey Public Library, Head Start and day care programs, the Jaffrey Grade School and local families.
Mills said the woman’s club will continue to join the knitting club, and will chose other charitable crafting projects.
Residents who have donations they would like to contribute to the United Church of Jaffrey’s Giving Tree may contact Arceci at 603-532-6821 to arrange an appointment to drop off items.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.