Two of our valuable Handmade volunteers passed away.

Ronnie Silverstone had been an active member of Handmade since the onset of the pandemic.  As soon as she heard we needed a place for one of our baskets of kits, she volunteered her house.  She really beat the bushes for Handmade, approaching the yarn stores she frequented for donations.  She brought yarn from as far away as Thousand Oaks to as close as Culver City.  She also was a great recruiter.  Many of her friends became scarfers for Handmade.  I hope they’ll stay involved with our scarf project as a way to remember Ronnie.  I attended her funeral and found out that yarn, knitting, and participating in Handmade reflected only a small part of Ronnie’s life.  She was a teacher, an entrepreneur, and a person who helped as many people as she could.  That sure fits in to the profile of other Handmade volunteers.  We’ll really miss her. 

I’ve told you about Joanne Garlick several times in the past.  An abuse survivor herself, she joined Handmade in 2009 with a fervent desire to help current abuse survivors.  She told me many times what receiving one of our comfort scarves would have meant to her had she received one.  So she resolved to make as many as she could.  I sent her a case of yarn each month and she sent Handmade about 100 scarves each month.  Over the years, that adds up to over 15,000 scarves.  Wow.  Sorry to say, Joanne died last month.  I just received her last box of scarves.  I haven’t been brave enough to open it, sorry as I am that it is her last.  She was very committed to Handmade and our scarf project.  She was a good friend to me personally, even though I never actually met her.  We communicated by email.  We all have a lot of scarfing to do to make up for her loss. 

In 2019 we posted photos of Joanne's work in our photo gallery.  Joanne's crochet pattern is listed under the crochet patterns tab.

Love,

Leslye