Women send 100 sweaters to children in need

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- More than 100 hand-knitted and crocheted sweaters have been sent from Marble Hill to locations worldwide over the last year. Every Monday, four Marble Hill women meet to knit sweaters for children who wouldn't otherwise have warm clothing during the winter.

Verdetta Seabaugh and Sue Brewer started the project in January 2006. Brewer read in Guideposts magazine about the Knit-for-Kids program sponsored by the magazine.

"I thought it would be something we could do together," Brewer said. "Between Verdetta's skill and my determination, I thought it would be something we could really keep going."

Later, Brewer enlisted Sheila Teeters and Shirley Cooper, both of Marble Hill, and the four women continued to knit for the program every Monday.

Seabaugh, who celebrated her 100th birthday in January, has made 67 of the 105 sweaters the women have completed. She said the women's Monday crochet and knitting meetings started out as a means to keep her hands and mind busy throughout the day, but it has developed into something even more meaningful.

"I sit here and crochet all the time," Seabaugh said. "I crochet in front of the television and just anytime. But it's nice to have a reason to visit."

"Sometimes we sit quietly and knit until someone has something to say," Cooper said of their Monday visits. "It's a comfortable quiet."

"Although it's uncommon for women to sit quietly," Seabaugh added.

The women mail their sweaters, sizes 2 through 10, to Guidepost magazine headquarters in New York. From there, they are distributed to people in need in Russia, Appalachia, New Mexico and Guatemala.

According to www.knitforkids.org, it was on March 25, 1996, that Guidepost magazine readers first learned of Guideposts editor Brigitte Weeks' contributions to a program to create warm sweaters for needy and cold children around the world.

Soon after, the Guideposts Sweater Project was born. According to the site, 2006, the year the Marble Hill ladies began knitting for the program smashed all previous records with 74,983 sweaters received. More than 400,000 sweaters have been hand-knitted and distributed worldwide.

Brewer said she and her friends plan to continue to send sweaters as long as possible.

"We'll keep making them while we can," she said, "as long as our eyes and hands keep going."