Over the past few months, I have shared with you a little about our family and our journey that is KidKnits. In many ways, this Great Adventure that we are on is very personal with every member of our immediate family involved in some way. While I am glad to be sharing our personal journey with you, I am afraid that if you think of KidKnits as just our family’s story, you are missing something very powerful. There is a much larger story that is about the over 750 students and teachers who have now been a part of the KidKnits program helping to change lives on the other side of the world. This larger story is these students who are creating a knitted hat for the first time in their lives, who are grasping the concepts of the reality of world poverty, who are identifying with people on the other side of the world involved with the KidKnits yarn, who are recognizing the power of responsible charity in the world, and are growing aware of their own role as a global world citizen. We wish we could share every one of these 750 stories with you, because each one is unique and powerful. From Jennifer who knitted her own KidKnits hats and then went into her old elementary school to share KidKnits with younger students, to Noah who woke up in the predawn hours to make sure that when his dad went hunting he had on his newly knitted, orange, warm KidKnits hat as he left, to the entire 5th grade class at St. Joseph’s Catholic School who purchased over 200 extra balls of yarn after they had already each knitted two hats during their class time, to the St. Vincent de Paul 5th and 6th grade Discovery group who knitted and then donated their hats to children in an at-risk after school program. Here is a brief note that we received from Sarah Hogan, the religion teacher at St. Vincent de Paul about their experience with KidKnits.
Hi Steve,
I wish you and Kristin could have been a part of our visit to the Friendship House yesterday. It is probably one of the greatest things I have ever been a part of. Our kids were buddied up with a child from their afterschool program. I’m so proud of the way our SVdP students embraced these kids, treated them as a new friend, and shared their work with them. Some of the buddies had their own handshakes before we left! The kids were so excited to receive the hats and put them on as soon as they could. It was so fun to witness the pride shining through the smiles of our students. They really felt like it was a part of themselves that they were able to give. Today they are talking about their new friends by name. Some even asked me if we could send them some Christmas presents and keep in touch with them.
Thank you so much for the work you do and this wonderful opportunity for our kids. Ellie’s vision and your hard work has made it possible for us to learn about service, leadership, and the dignity of work – really about what it means to be Christian. Kidknits has been a valuable learning experience for our kids helping them to step out of their little world and into the world of another, one just down the road, and another across the globe.
School after school, classroom after classroom, and student after student – we are so blessed to be connected to you. The KidKnits story keeps being written with every hat that is created and every student that is empowered to change the world. Only God knows how it will continue to be written, but our family is in for the ride and we hope you will continue on this journey together with us. So, as the stories from kids around our country are knitted together with the stories from the beautiful women in Rwanda and in Chile, we say “Thank you”, “Murakoze”, and “Gracias”.