A warm feeling

  • Oscar Halpert<br>Enterprise editor
  • Monday, March 3, 2008 11:42am

BRIER — Nancy Stainer’s been knitting afghans and baby clothes for friends and family for decades.

But it was a story in the Christian magazine Guidepost that grabbed the Brier grandmother’s attention.

The article alerted her to a program that accepts sweaters for children in need.

She learned a sweater pattern from the article and started shipping her handmade sweaters to Guidepost’s New York headquarters.

But that got to be too expensive.

“It cost me almost $30 to ship them, so I was defeating my purpose,” Stainer said.

The organization sent a thank-you note to Stainer, letting her know they distribute sweaters through other organizations, including Federal-Way based World Vision.

“I thought why am I shipping them to New York and having them ship them to the Northwest?”

Stainer began connecting with missionaries through her church, Shoreline Community Church.

“But then I was having trouble giving them away because World Vision wanted large quantities. I wasn’t going to store that many sweaters before I gave them away.”

So earlier this year, she contacted The Salvation Army in Seattle, which told her they’d accept smaller donations and would pick them up from her.

The Salvation Army is helping house and clothe hundreds of survivors of Hurricane Katrina through its Katrina Aid Today program.

“Instead of just giving them a voucher for our thrift stores, it’s really nice to give them one of these hand-made sweaters,” said Shanti Hahler, community relations director of The Salvation Army’s Northwest Division.

Her sweaters have ended up in the Republic of Georgia, Uzbekistan, Romania, China and Central America.

“I’ve probably made over 260 sweaters,” she said. “And really, that’s just in my spare time. I didn’t get the knitting machine until just over a year ago. So a lot of those were by hand.”

With a knitting machine, Stainer can knit several sweaters, sizes two to 12, each week.

“It’s exciting to see your sweaters on children that receive them and appreciate them,” she said.

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