Photo: Vitaly Titov & Maria Sidelnikova
Teenage boys contentedly knitting? Absolutely, when the well-being of homeless people in chilly Winnipeg is at stake.
In December, four boys and three girls from Miles Macdonnell Collegiate Institute delivered more than 250 cozy hand-knit woollen toques to the Siloam Mission, an urban Christian shelter. “We spent the past year knitting the hats in our spare time at home,” says Giezi Arevalo, 18, who taught the others in the group to knit. “It’s stress-relieving and maybe a bit addictive.”
Each knitter spent about 72 hours making hats. The group also knit toques this year to help the Red Cross raise relief money for the victims of the Japanese tsunami.
The knitting circle, called Esperanza (Spanish for “hope”), purchased $600 worth of wool and $200 worth of knitting looms and other supplies with a youth grant from United Way. The students hope to keep the program alive at the school after they graduate this spring from its international baccalaureate program.