The following is a news article printed from www.wnewsj.com
Fashioning warmth for soldiers
BRANDON SMITH
Staff Intern
There was a time when, from the comfort of their own homes, America’s housewives would knit and sew clothing and blankets for the country’s soldiers.
It happened during Colonial times and during the Civil War. But it’s happening again, and one Wilmington woman is participating.
“I want to do anything I can for those young men,” said Helen Kleinman, a Wilmington resident whose son is serving in Iraq. “We owe them.”
Iraq and Afghanistan may be hot in the summer and the daytime, but temperatures there can drop below zero in the winter and/or at night, said Sue Pflederer, who leads a project called “Operation Helmetliner.” The project directs knitters across the country to fashion wool head coverings with a certain pattern and send them her way, to be sent to soldiers in the field.
Some soldiers are based in remote outposts where temperatures can be even more frigid, said Pflederer. In these places, access to items like hats and scarves is limited or nonexistent.
From her Wilmington home, Kleinman has fashioned and sent more than a dozen embroidered quilt patches. Her patches feature a stately eagle and a message that the quilt was made for soldiers by appreciative volunteers. Kleinman’s patches are stitched onto quilts, made by others, that are intended to cover wounded soldiers transported by cargo planes without heat. This is apparently a common occurrence, said Pflederer.
“Thousands” of ordinary people are helping American soldiers stay warm and know they are appreciated, according to the group’s Web site. This time the effort includes more than just housewives.
The group is called Citizen S.A.M., Citizen Support for America’s Military, and is based in Peoria, Ill. Volunteers from across the country have used Citizen S.A.M.’s patterns and guidelines to make things for soldiers and send them to Peoria, where they are then sent to a unit of soldiers in the field.
Whole units are supplied with the items at once, so no one is left out, the group claims.
The items include 100 percent wool helmetliners, 100 percent cotton quilts, Christmas stockings stuffed with goodies, and letters of support.
Kleinman plans to enlist as many Wilmingtonians as possible to help her make and send items to Peoria.
More information is available on the group’s Web site, citizensam.org, including guidelines and patterns for fashioning hats, scarves or quilts. The group also mails patterns and guidelines to people who send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to the organization, at Citizen SAM, 7131 N. Knoxville Ave. Suite C, Illinois 61614. |
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