Brenda Mayhew woke up one cold morning in January five years ago with a dream to fundraise for the Tamworth District Lion’s Christmas hampers.
Her desire to help led to the creation of the Knitting Elves, a group of volunteers who use their knitting talents to raise funds for the community.
As a new comer to the Napanee community, she knew it would not be an easy task and would require help from local residents. She told her husband that she wanted to get knitted mittens for the hampers. Being a mother herself she knew that parents always give to their children and they do without.
For this new venture Mayhew contacted local papers that offered to write articles for free about the fund raiser. With that, the Christmas hampers knitting fund raising campaign got its start. Residents were eager to knit what they could and donate. Pick-ups started into early spring as people were knitting through the winter. Boxes of wool came in and what could not be used for mittens or over flow was sold on their website to allow the group to purchase gift cards for the teens and adults in the Christmas hampers.
This year with a donation of small quilts from one of the elves, it was decided to approach Lansing Gallery to see if they could sell for the fundraiser. Owner Rennie Hutzler was happy to support the cause and could see a good blend with her gift items in the store. The Lansing Gallery store took on the project of selling the quilt pieces with full amount going to the fundraiser. The store has had remarkable interest in these quilts over the last eight months, each month needing more quilts to sell. To date the staff at Lansing Gallery have raised nearly $ 2,000 from sales of these quilt pieces.
With the five year results in so far The Knitting Elves have raiser over $ 13,000 for the Tamworth District Lions for $20 gift cards for the hampers. The group of knitters have also provided mitten, hats and scarfs for all family members (baby to adult) for the Christmas hampers. The group has also been able to provide mittens and hats to three of the local schools for children. With such great success and many knitters want to knit items going forward the group will continue with hope to succeed into 2022. With these results it shows that people are willing to help give out love in many different ways.
For more information on the group visit TheKnittingElves.org.