Knitting turns into service at Reutlinger Community

Cecile Aronson, who describes herself as "88 years young," has been knitting all her life. Every Thursday afternoon, she joins half a dozen other residents in the library of the Reutlinger Community for Jewish Living in Danville.

There they sit and talk and knit blankets, hats and other handmade items for low-income families in Contra Costa County. These become gifts and part of the layettes that accompany newborns home from the county hospital.

Aronson enjoys these social get-togethers where she is doing something productive and making something pretty. "If you like to knit and like people and like to give to others, this is wonderful," she says.

The knitting project is part of a bigger effort in conjunction with the Rossmoor chapter of the National Council of Jewish Women.

Busy hands make light work and in the case of the Reutlinger knitters, their hands have been very busy for some time. Before joining the NCJW project in June, the knitters had been creating lap robes for residents in the Reutlinger Community's skilled nursing facility.

Carol Goldman, director of programs, had been looking for an outreach project for residents to become involved in serving the broader community when she heard about the NCJW knitting project. She invited Blanche Turitz of the Rossmoor chapter to speak to the knitters and that's how things got started.

The project has opened a new opportunity for the residents to give of themselves, Goldman says. They achieve tremendous satisfaction from meeting the needs of a child, being occupied, productive and creative. "It's getting involved on a Jewish level," she says.

Turitz started the Rossmoor chapter's knitting project nine years ago when she was vice president of community service. She contacted the county hospital in Martinez, formerly known as Merrithew Hospital and now called the Contra Costa Regional Medical Center.

"County hospitals always need a lot of help," Turitz says, "and the woman [I spoke with] almost jumped through the phone." She was only too happy to take Turitz up on her offer to help with the layette program.

Turitz began knitting blankets for the babies. When she brought her knitting projects to NCJW meetings, other members approached her about helping out. Some of the women told her they hadn't knitted in years, but maybe they could make a blanket.

NCJW agreed to supply yarn for the project, and chapter members began working on blankets, sweaters, hats and booties. Working at home, the knitters would tote their finished products to chapter meetings.

"Before I knew it I was dragging shopping bags from a meeting where I would get three or four blankets, and in the other bag I'd get some hats and booties," Turitz says with a laugh. "People started referring to me as 'the bag lady.'"

Soon each layette from the county hospital included a handmade sweater, hat, booties and a blanket, along with the county-supplied undershirt, bath towel, sleeper, bottle and rattle. Each blanket and sweater has a special label sewn in: "Made especially for you by National Council of Jewish Women."

"Some months we get 20 blankets and 12 sweaters, some months it's 18 blankets and five sweaters," says Turitz, who enjoys working with her hands and has been knitting since she was a teenager in Brooklyn. She knitted her first sweater when she was 13. "It took the whole summer" to finish a pink short-sleeve sweater, "but it came out right and I had a finished product."

Turitz feels the program works in two ways: It helps outfit a child, and "it gives the women something to do and they see the finished product; it looks adorable and they get thank-you notes from the hospital. They feel they're doing something very special and they are."

Fredette Pardini, director of volunteer services and community resources at the Contra Costa Regional Medical Center agrees. The gratitude of the hospital and the mothers for the layette items is "beyond belief...I cannot tell you how much we appreciate their efforts."

During 1999, NCJW's Rossmoor chapter knitted 125 items, valued at $2,000. Last year, the chapter contributed $3,358 in layette items and cash, including donations to the medical center's pediatric playground. No figures are available yet for 2001.

Turitz handed over the layette project to Claire Rosensweig about 3-1/2 years ago, and in her words, Rosensweig became "the alternate bag lady." Rosensweig, also a Rossmoor resident, has always had a passion for knitting. "When I used to work in an architectural office every baby born in that office had a sweater. I love to do it." In addition, Reutlinger Community volunteer and board member Sandy Sussman oversees the Thursday knitting program at the residence.

Rosensweig solicits discounts from knitting stores and requests yarn donations from manufacturers. She carries with her easy-to-do patterns and instructions in a folder and offers to teach those whose skills are rusty or nonexistent.

For Rosensweig the service commitment of NCJW -- giving back to the community -- is important. "The knitters feel what they're doing is a mitzvah. The babies go home with this package and they have something that is handmade with lots of love."

And there's something else in it for Rosensweig. "I always like to see a baby dressed up. Everybody has a soft spot for babies."