Made with Love

BY LAUREN MCCOART

For more than 10 years, men and women at Glen Cove Senior Center in Glen Cove, New York have put their skills to use by knitting hats, gloves, blankets, and sweaters for children, their families, and seniors in need in Appalachia. This past January, 20 knitters began a year-long journey to share their love by knitting beautiful warm winter items to donate to Christian Appalachian Project.

In 2019, with the help of Village Church of Bayville, New York, the group knitted 197 pounds of items to send to Eastern Kentucky. “They have been knitting for years and years, and having a place to send the items is really meaningful to them,” said Christine Bartell, Village Church’s chairperson for the Mission Committee.

Village Church provides a beautiful assortment of yarn and supplies for the knitters and are grateful to help support such a worthwhile effort. “We get to support a local group. Their knitting contributes to a broader mission and it really is a beautiful experience,” Bartell explained. “The Mission Committee always looks to support local, national, and global interests, and this project covers a lot.” But the participants receiving the items are not the only ones who benefit. According to Carol Waldman, who worked with the group for many years, there is a sense of purpose that transforms the Glen Cove seniors as well. “Some of them felt like their hardworking days were over and that they didn’t have much to give, but suddenly they have a new mission, a new sense of purpose,” Waldman said.

Each year before they pack all of the items made with love in sturdy boxes that will make the trip all the way to Kentucky, Village Church hosts a celebration for the knitters to honor their hard work and completion of another year’s commitment to help people in need in Appalachia. (left to right) Alice Lynch, Sophie Barbieri, and Sharon Faith Collins, with the Glen Cove Senior Center in New York, annually send knitted items to CAP. (right) Sally Miceli also does her part to create beautiful handmade items.

“It is such a beautiful, meaningful, collaborative experience,” Bartell said. “It is not just to show off their amazing knitted projects, but an opportunity for us to show our gratitude for their year-long labor of love.”