Local knitting group donates warm clothes ahead of the holidays

Every Thursday afternoon, nearly a dozen women make their way to the Independence Village dining hall for the weekly gathering of the senior-living facility’s knitting group.

Some equipped with needles, others with handheld looms, all of them come together excited to make knitted apparel for a good cause.

The group works year-round to make a large donation of hats and other knitted items to outreach groups in Greater Lansing.

Late last year, in November, the Independence Village Knitting Group sent 200 knitted hats along with some scarves and mittens to the City Rescue Mission of Lansing. The knitters had found instructions online to make baby hats using their looms, so they made another donation of 100 smaller knit hats, this time to the Regional Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Sparrow Children’s Center.

The members of the group all have slightly different answers on when exactly the group began, but they all have no doubt about who started and has continued to grow the group.

Sandra Galasso masterminded the project when she first moved into Independence Village nearly a decade ago. Since then, she has made connections in the community and has brought many of her fellow residents to join her on Thursdays. Galasso isn’t quick to take credit for the group’s accomplishments, but the group members all speak highly of her, especially her ability to convince people to join the group.

“Sandra’s very persuasive,” Caroline Orsini said with a laugh. “She gets after people to come to the group.”

Orsini doesn’t live in Independence Village, but she has been coming to knit every week for several years. She even helped keep the group active in Greater Lansing when Galasso stayed with her son in California for three years.

Ila Parker is one of Galasso’s fellow Independence Village residents. She moved into the senior living center two years ago and said that she found her love of knitting again when Galasso recruited her to the group.

“They’re just a really great group of ladies,” Parker said.

Galasso started knitting about 10 years ago at another senior living facility. Other members of the group have been knitting and crocheting for several decades. Galasso said each member of the group has their own favorite thing to knit.

“We all have our own specialty,” Galasso said. Hers is the baby hats.

Their work towards the yearly donation is a team effort.

Several years ago, few women from the Emanuel Lutheran Church were knitting winter wear and sending it to Independence Village to add to the yearly donation. Galasso invited them to lunch as a “thank you”, and they have been regular members of the group ever since.

Penny Wickham is one of the women from the Emanuel Lutheran Church who joined the Independence Village group. Wickham crochets prayer shawls for the church and scarves for anyone who would like one. She has been crocheting since she was little, but her method changed after she lost her sight at the age of 36. Now Wickham crochets entirely by feel and muscle memory.

“I just feel fortunate that I’m able to give back,” Wickham said.

Many of the members in the group echoed that same sentiment of being thankful for an opportunity to do some good.

“Sometimes you feel, once you’re wheelchair bound, that you can’t do anything,” Becky Oversmith said. “This is a good activity for helping other people.”

She moved into Independence Village just eight months ago and is new to the group and new to knitting entirely. She got to see her first donation as part of the group in November and was impressed by the amount of winter wear they had all made.

The women are thankful for the opportunity, and the community is thankful for their work. The group received “thank you” notes from the Regional Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Sparrow Children’s Center and the City Rescue Mission of Lansing. Galasso made copies of the notes to make sure every member of the club had their own “thank you”.

“Faithful groups, like Independence Village, are the reason we are able to provide a safe haven to about 250 women, children, and men tonight, and we are so grateful for their compassion in action,” Mark Criss, executive director the City Rescue Mission of Lansing, said in an email to the LSJ.

With a fresh supply of yarn and high spirits, the group has already gotten right back into their work to make more hats, mittens, scarves and slippers to donate this year.

Jack Moreland is a news assistant at the Lansing State Journal. Contact him at jmoreland@lsj.com or 517.267.0479. Follow him on Twitter @JackMoreland02.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Lansing knitting group donates hats, mittens, scarves for the holidays