Local Grange Recognizes Makers of 'Shawls of Love'
 Beverly Herzog, left, Sweet Brook activities coordinator Fern Tucker, Scott Bannin, Nancy Lescarbeau and Linnea Nelson. |
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Two local people are providing some handmade comfort to the population of Sweet Brook Care Centers.
Members of the local Grange, a national organization that promotes agricultural pursuits, met to recognize the kindness of the two residents who have used knitting and crocheting to overcome their own challenges.
Scott Bannin and Beverly Herzog have made a total of 27 shawls and lap robes with the help of Grange members to hand out to the Sweet Brook community.
Bannin, a veteran living at Turner House, said the shawls were made with "lots of love." He said he used to visit his mother, who has Alzheimer's, and was struck by the sadness in the other patients faces.
"When I went to see her, I would see the people in the wheelchairs with no expressions on their faces. Nobody was there to see them; no parents, no grandchildren, no nothing," Bannin said. "When I made one for my mother, the nurses said 'I think some of these patients would love one of those,' so I said, 'OK.'"
Bannin's mother and grandmother showed him how to crochet when he was a young man. He said he can make them quickly now and is glad he could help people.
"I asked 'how many do you want' and it only took me two or three days to make all of these so I was going as fast as I could," he said. "I did it because they needed it so I said, 'why not?' "
Beverly Herzog was born with cerebral palsy and said she knits to help with her physical therapy. She said her mother and grandmother also showed her how to knit when she was a girl.
"My grandmother did crochet, but I can't do that because you have to use both hands, so she showed me how to knit and that's how I got started," Herzog said. "Women would get together on certain Sundays of the month. They would knit and crochet while the guys played cards. That's how it was, that's how we got this started."
Grange member Nancy Lescarbeau thanked Herzog and Bannin for their efforts during the chapter's monthly potluck dinner meeting last week at Sheep Hill, the Williamstown Rural Lands Foundation.
"Some of the churches make prayer shawls, but I am calling these shawls 'shawls of love,' because that is what they are doing," Lescarbeau said. "They are giving their love to you folks, and the folks that will be wearing them in the nursing home."
Tags: grange, knit,crochet, nursing home, recognition event,
