Hook and Needle Group members Marjie Balint and Gurli Eriksen with boxes of items to deliver.

Seventeen residents of Three Pillars Senior Living Communities in Dousman, WI, spent much of 2018 knitting and crocheting 1,200 items — hats, mittens and scarfs all shapes, sizes, colors, and patterns — to keep members of the larger community warm.

“Out of the 17 of us, some of us make a few, and some make hundreds,” said Naomi Mayer, a member of the residents’ “Hook and Needle Group,” which began in 2006. “We enjoy it very much and are happy to be able to do something we love to help others,” she added.

Approximately 41 boxes of items were dropped off to local charities, carrying on a tradition that has received a positive response from the greater community.

“We knit to keep people warm, but we knit with colors to bring some joy into their lives,” Mayer said.

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