Warming Their Neighbors’ Hearts – and Heads
When Chris Berkheimer found herself with extra time and yarn on her hands last November, a project was born that’s providing winter warmth to those in need throughout Norridge.
The yarn was donated to The Salvation Army Norridge Corps Community Center, where Chris has been volunteering at their food pantry for the past two years. Pamela Church-Pryor, the Community Ministries Director at the Norridge corps, offered the yarn to some of the volunteers who she knew crocheted and knitted, including Chris.
When Pamela mentioned to Chris that the Norridge corps had also received a donation of women’s winter hats, Chris decided to make some hats for men and children. And she recruited her mom, two sisters, and two daughters to help. All of them were eager to be a part of the project.
“When Chris told me about making the hats, I immediately said, ‘When do we start?!’” said Gerry Evanchak, Chris’s mom, who crochets the hats whenever she has free time. “It has become an addiction now,” she said. “I can’t wait to keep making them.”
Pamela gives the donated hats to clients of the Norridge corps’ food pantry, along with hand warmers and face masks that have also been donated. “Mostly the reaction is ohh and ahh, with a big smile and a thank you,” Pamela said. “Some people put the hat on right then and there!”
Once Chris and her crocheting family members had made 50 men’s hats, they moved on to children’s hats, adding a pom-pom to the ones for girls. “I hope it keeps them warm and lets them know that people they don’t even know care about them,” Chris said of those who receive the hats.
Cora Burton, another volunteer making hats, hopes they provide some comfort to those who receive them, not just physically but spiritually as well. She thinks the project is a lovely expression of the Norridge corps’ mission to bring Christ to the people and the people to Christ. Especially with the recent cold snap.
“We are blessed to have such thoughtful and talented volunteers,” Pamela said. “They all do beautiful work; stitched with love, for sure.”
Chris offers high praise back to the help being given to neighbors in need through the Norridge corps. “A lot of wonderful things happen in that building. I love volunteering there,” she said, adding that she drove by the building countless times before realizing how many services it offers the community. “I always tell others, if you want to donate somewhere and feel good about it, The Salvation Army is it.”