United States of America (community Purls Program)

Knitting4Peace member Carol Hoglund lives in Virginia. She sent K4P items to her sister, Sue Shoff, who lives in Washington, Illinois. Here is Sue's story about the devastation in her town and the healing and hope provided by our caps and scarves:

I went to Lincoln Grade school to deliver the lovely scarves and hats. These children lost their homes to the tornado. This was their second day back to school and their teacher (whose home was badly damaged) was pleasantly pleased with their positive outlook. One joked that her writing assignment wasn't finished (tornado delayed) but she knew she'd be writing about the tornado next time. The girls were annoyed at their kindergartener brothers cause all they drew were tornadoes now.

Red Cross workers have remarked they have never been to a place will such a strong community spirit. There has been overwhelming support from all over the USA but you can't realize the mass of destruction from the tornado unless you see it first hand. Houses are flattened. My girls’ club met last night. Two out of ten members had their homes destroyed. One had to ride it out in the bathroom with her husband on top of her, they had no basement. The other had just left for church because the sirens had stopped because the tornado had taken them out on the other side of town. They left their son home upstairs. He said it was a false alarm. Lucky he ran downstairs to see why they had left him and saw the tornado and fled to the basement. Carol immediately turned around the car when she saw tree limbs flying to try and get home, thinking Jeff had stayed upstairs and had died. It's just terrifying listening to everyone's tales of survival.

Thanks again for the scarves and hats. They made a hit with these kids. Other teachers were told about them and to bring their kids that were affected by the tornado down to the office to get theirs. Thanks again...perfect timing...snow is in the forecast! I gave my friend, Carol, one of the sets . . . she lost everything but her son:)

Healing coming along, thanks to the strong community spirit of family, friends and church.