It’s the holidays now, and calls for giving arrive in my mailbox every day from charities to which I contribute and charities I’ve never encountered. My knitting meet-up, the Ann Arbor Stitch n’ Bitch Knitters, is doing a “Knit One, Save One” Hat Drive. We’re knitting hats for low birth weight babies for Save the Children.
Sitting down to knit the little cap was just like any knitting project I do. I’ve knit several baby blankets for friend and family’s children, and in each one, it was like I was casting a spell of love and good wishes for the young’un, making a tangible blessing that (I hoped) would wrap the baby in love first and a blanket second. In this case, knitting a tiny hat for a small baby I’d never meet brought the baby to my awareness, and the experience of offering the hat was more intense and lasted longer than the experience of writing a check.
I did some exploration of the Save the Children site after finishing the two hats, and I have the sense that the baby hats alone won’t do as much as immunizations, nutrition, antibiotics, bed nets, and the like. So why hats? It’s a strategy to get folks involved and aware of the precarious health of these low birthweight babies. You can write your congressperson and/or senators, call on President-Elect Barack Obama to prioritize child survival, or join one of several online Save the Children communities (including Twitter) to become more involved.