Wooster Daily Record
Dec 4 2011
‘Angels of Comfort’ knitting comfort for others
By PAUL LOCHER
Staff Writer
ORRVILLE — It has been almost seven years since a group of about a
dozen women began getting together at Trinity United Methodist Church
to socialize while keeping their knitting needles in motion.
In 2004, they couldn’t possibly have envisioned the work before them
in the years to follow, or the impact they would have not only in
their local community, but across the country and around the world as
well.
Sharon Kowaleski, wife of the Rev. David Kowaleski, remembers in its
first get-together the group “had a nice time, and we decided to meet
a couple of weeks later.” Those first casual sessions became regular
meetings on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month from 9-11 a.m.
The knitting circle began making useful things people in hospitals and
nursing homes and soldiers fighting on foreign battlefields could use,
and they adopted a name for their group — “Angels of Comfort.”
Over the seven-year period, said Kowaleski, 32 women have come and
gone from the group, although there is a core of devoted members that
goes back to when the Angels organized. Meetings typically open with
devotions and Scripture readings, then out come the knitting needles
and news of the day to be traded and savored, and in no time colorful
skeins of yarn are being transformed into a variety of comfortable
items.
Kowaleski said each year’s production has a theme, but no one knows
what that’s going to be, or where the group is going to come up with
the yarn needed to make what is needed. But, says, Kowaleski, every
year the Lord has provided the group with a mission and the materials
to carry it out.
In 2005, the group heard from a service man that troops in Iraq could
use scarves. The knitters turned out 200 of them in a camouflage
pattern and sent them over. That same year they crafted 18 prayer
shawls and a dozen lap robes for use in nursing homes.
The next year they used furry yarn to make caps for people undergoing
chemotherapy. Seventy-five of the caps stayed in Wayne County, with
three dozen sent to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital in Tennessee.
According to Kowaleski, who maintains a journal of the work done by
the group, 2008 was the Angels’ “this and that year,” which saw the
women make scarves, prayer shawls and large afghans.
In 2009, the group affiliated with a national “Knit for Kids” effort,
making items to be sent to orphanages in Europe. Members also made 36
sweaters for the Joy Center in Kentucky, with 51 people from the
church boarding a bus to hand-deliver their creations to the
youngsters in a four-day road trip.
Last year the ladies adopted an Armenian mission, making 146 hats, as
well as matching gloves in many cases, and 22 scarves. Esther Leggett,
a four-year member of the group, knitted 114 of the hats herself.
The women said they had seen photographs of the area of Armenia where
their projects were to be sent, and said the landscape was hugely
depressing.
“Even though the pictures were in color,” said Kowaleski, “it looked
like they were in black and white, because everything was so drab.”
The Angels said they like to imagine the brightly-colored items they
knitted lending a sense of bright color to that environment as they
are worn by children.
As the 2011 knitting season draws to a close, the Angels look back on
207 additional hats and 119 colorful scarves made for the Armenia
mission, as well as 30 helmet liners to be sent to United States
troops fighting in Afghanistan. In addition, they made blankets for
the Children’s Advocacy Center for sexually abused children.
Before the year’s production is shipped out to the recipients,
Kowaleski said it receives a “congregational blessing.” She said all
of the items made by the Angels are laid out on the altar, communion
rails, tables and racks for the congregation to see. Prayer is offered
for the recipients.
“We’re now into the thousands of items produced,” said Kowaleski,
noting the group “didn’t follow any kind of a formula in this. It’s
all been dumb luck. But what we do is important. What we do goes all
over the world.”
Kowaleski said like the knitting assignments that seem to come right
from God, so, too, do the materials for the job. She said, oddly
enough, donations of yarn have always been received exactly at the
right moment.
She said families cleaning out attics or residences of loved ones
often show up with yarn to be donated to the effort. One way or
another, Kowaleski said, the yarn always arrives when needed.
Nancy Brest of Orrville, one of the original members of the Angels and
a regular attendee, said she enjoys being part of the group “because I
enjoy knitting and I enjoy my church family … and also because here
I don’t have to buy my own yarn. I like to knit sweaters especially,
and I just think it’s a fun group.”
Leggett, who has been a member of the Angels since retiring from her
job several years ago, said she participates because she was so deeply
touched by the story of a Doylestown minister’s daughter who was
killed while on a mission to Armenia where the group now sends many of
its items.
“His story went right to my heart,” Leggett said. “The Lord has never
actually talked to me, that I’ve heard, but I know he tapped me on the
shoulder with this. I just felt compelled.”
“We all can’t do everything,” said Kowaleski, “but this is something we can do.”
Kowaleski said the group is open to anyone of any denomination who
enjoys knitting, and all they have to do to join the Angels is show
up.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
