ATLANTIC BEACH, Fla. — A group of special women are knitting for a purpose this holiday season: to help military babies.
Tucked away inside the Fleet Landing retirement community, the ladies known as the Knit-Wits are hard at work.
“I can’t remember where I am on that row,” one knitter commented in passing.
“We are very, very busy old people,” joked Toni Reichow. “It keeps us young, that’s for sure!” she added with a chuckle.
These women get together once a week.
“We’ve become good friends,” Reichow emphasized.
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While they create knitting projects solely for fun, their focus is on helping military families.
“We only knit for pleasure, for ourselves, or for the USO,” Reichow affirmed.
“We first started with making scarves and hats for the troops overseas,” she explained of the history behind their connection to the United Service Organizations. “Then somehow we started with this - with the babies!”
We saw Reichow knitting together a tiny car seat blanket.
“Then we knit hats and little booties. And some ladies make the bigger blankets,” she demonstrated. “But most of us I think are sticking with the smaller ones. It’s easier to do!” She pointed out with a laugh.
And despite the imperfections only they can spot, these women are happy to create a one-of-a-kind present for a military baby out there who needs it.
“A lot of them don’t get anything like that,” Reichow presumes. “[So] it just makes us feel good.”
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Once the women are done with these knitted gifts, they get delivered to USO Mayport where families can come and pick out whatever it is that their baby needs.
“The joy of making something is you’re dreaming of what the reaction of the person who receives it is going to be,” described fellow knitter Lynn Spancake.
These ladies hope to meet a family in-person one day. But for now, they’ve got the tight-knit bond with each other to count on - and a common goal.
“We do have a good time,” Reichow said. “And yet we have a purpose.”
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