At our August meet-up, we learned that one of our group members, JoAnna Keocher was currently in the hospital undergoing treatment, and so we set out to make her a hat. We each did a few rows...

And here it is on JoAnna herself!

As of August, we'd hit nearly 500 items for the year! You brought in 27 hats, two blankets, and two fiddle muffs during our August 2017 meet-up. Nice work! We also learned at the meet-up that one of our own, JoAnna, was in the hospital getting treated for cancer, and we all contributed a few rows to a hat for her! (See other post.)

The fiddle muffs are a new item introduced by Dianna. They're especially useful for those suffering from memory loss, but give anybody sitting in place for awhile something to fiddle with!

July is typically a lower donation month for us because it falls in the middle of gardening season, but we still come together at Silverwood Park to enjoy each other's company. In all, we received 14 items in July 2017; that's 9 hats, 3 blankets and 2 shawls/cowls.

We delivered 101 hats and 5 shawls to the Cancer Care Center at Fairview Southdale Hospital on Thursday, June 1, 2017. We were surprised to learn it had been two years since someone had donated hats at this metro-area hospital, and agreed that we'll put them on our regular rotation schedule.

"Oh, thank you so much," said Kim Boysen. "We have a patient right now who would love these colors."

"We're pleased you can use hats right now," remarked Amy. Kim reassured us that it's always chilly in their treatment rooms because of the big windows there. Nursing staff regularly make tied fleece blankets for patients to keep them cozy.

We let Kim know that we hope they feel free to be generous with the hats and to give away more than one to each person, as we're happy to deliver more when they run out! Just give us a call. Kim was excited to be able to use a colorful hat to brighten the day of a patient who might need it, especially one who has been there a long time. "Something like this is really nice," said Kim. She told us she was looking forward to attending her Team Meeting later that day to share the news about the hats and help them get back in the habit of offering them to patients.

We got a little lost finding the in patient area, but were helped by this kind employee -- who also found us a cart so we didn't have to carry the boxes around! THANK YOU!!

The Cancer Care treatment center at Southdale is a 43-bed unit, and also serves some urology patients. They see about 22 patients with leukemia a year, and those may be there up to 12 weeks. In all, 2000 patients a year come through their unit, according to Kim.

One of the side effects they see from the chemo is severe nervopathy, where it is painful for the patient to get something out of the fridge. They like to give these people mittens, observed Kim. They also like to give away stuffed animals -- especially to help calm those with delirium or dementia "They really like to cuddle things and rock them," remarked Kim. So, for anyone of our volunteers looking for a new challenge... feel free to get creative!