Kalispell seniors knitting up a storm for annual giveaway

Any doubt about the knitting prowess of the Kalispell Senior Center disappears when you see the inventory table.

There are organized piles — 30 hats and scarves for Head Start here, a pile of knit caps for the Abbie Shelter there — but they overflow to the point where it’s hard to differentiate between them. As the temperatures decline, the Senior Center’s “Winter Warm It Up” knitwear campaign is heating up, collecting handmade hats, mittens, scarves, blankets and other toasty wares for children across the valley.

A network of 24 Senior Center members knit or crochet every donated piece, which go to 15 organizations, such as the Abbie Shelter or Kalispell Regional Medical Center, and most area elementary schools. Before delivery, all items are inventoried at the Senior Center by the drive’s organizer and Senior Center Vice President Gerri Backes. Hence the piles and binders keeping track of who donated what and for whom — 27 multicolored hats from one knitter, for example, or tiny caps specially designed for infants.

Though the Senior Center gathers items all year, the collections spike upward in late September and early October, as kids are back in school and temperatures drop. Last week, the Senior Center delivered 850 items to area schools, according to Backes.

The knitters get more efficient, too.

“One gal, she makes mittens, and she says that she can make a set of mittens while she’s watching one ballgame,” Backes said.

Another has acute tremors and poor eyesight, so she works with thick yarn on a loom. She delivered 57 hats on Tuesday.

The “Warm It Up” drive was originally an effort on behalf of the Retired Senior Volunteer Program, which lost its funding a couple of years ago.

“Two years ago, we thought this was too great of a worthwhile project, so we adopted the program and renamed it ‘Warm it Up,’” Backes pointed out.

The program, now in its third year, is set to outpace last year’s donation total of 2,023 items. The original program had paid positions, but through the Senior Center, it’s now an all-volunteer effort.

“It’s a full-time job, but it’s all volunteer still,” Backes said.

Besides knitting, the program relies on a system of volunteer deliverers and donated yarn, which can often be in short supply.

“We in turn donate [yarn] back to the knitter so it isn’t a financial obligation to the folks. So we’re in desperate need of yarn,” she stressed.

“Warm It Up” has the added bonus of providing a creative outlet for many members of the Senior Center.

“For seniors, it’s been really good for people who haven’t had anything to do — they do this, and they really enjoy it,” said Clarice Barnes, a volunteer with “Warm It Up.”

One woman, added Backes, knitted and crocheted for years but stopped because “she didn’t have anywhere to give them. And when she found out we were doing it, oh my gosh, she cleaned her closet [of yarn] out.”

But Backes and Barnes said at the end of the day, “Warm It Up” is all about the kids — the ones who receive what can be crucial winter-weather clothing, who are photographed smiling in their hat and mittens or have written thank-you notes decorated with thick strokes of marker.

“They see [the gifts] and their eyes light up — it’s amazing,” said volunteer Debbie Rossol, who delivers items to Head Start. “Just a little thing like that makes these kids so happy.”

For more information, to request donations or to donate yarn, contact the Kalispell Senior Center at 406-257-1598.

Reporter Adrian Horton may be reached at 758-4439 or ahorton@dailyinterlake.com.