Aug 22, 2007 10:34 pm US/Pacific
Knitting Worldwide Friendships
Jefferson Award Winner Ann Rubin
by Kate Kelly
(CBS 5)
In the basement of a San Francisco community center, volunteers are opening packages from around the country and around the world. Inside each package is a hand-knitted item bound for Afghanistan.
"We get gifts from individuals, sweaters, hats, mittens, socks, blankets, but then people also organize in groups," says project coordinator Ann Rubin. "You might get a church group or a classroom or a university knitting circle."
Ann started collecting these items shortly after the U.S. went to war in Afghanistan.
"It's far away and you sort of wonder what can I do here? And here was something actually you could do besides write a check - something you could do with your own hands," Ann explains.
Ann named the project "afghans for Afghans", and put out the call for volunteers on the internet. So far, she and her fellow knitters have sent about 55,000 woolen items to the people of Afghanistan.
Volunteers like Laura Truffaut have found Ann's project inspiring.
She says, "You're knitting something, it takes a while. All the time you're picturing somebody who you'll never meet, really at the other end of the world, living a drastically different life, who's going to wear this. It was absolutely wonderful to get a sense that I could do a small thing."
"That's actually an instinctual response for knitters," Ann adds. "When there's times of trouble or war, they think, 'What can I make you?'"
Ann and her volunteers have also started documenting traditional Afghan designs, creating patterns so knitters here can appreciate Afghanistan's rich textile tradition.
"The Afghan people have been forgotten a lot over time and at least in our own little way, we're determined not to forget," Ann says.
But when the photos come back, it's hard to tell who's benefitting more.
"I made that hat!" says one volunteer, gazing a photo of the lucky recipient. "And there's a happy smile on that young girl who's going to be wearing it. I feel almost as happy as she looks."
Ann agrees, saying, "I think we may be getting more out of this than the Afghan people. People seem to have an even greater need to somehow be involved. We give them some tangible method of doing something for somebody so far away."
So for linking volunteers around the globe with people in need in Afghanistan, this week's Jefferson Award in the Bay Area goes to Ann Rubin.
Note: aid agencies have helped by transporting the items to Afghanistan. To get involved, click the link for afghans for Afghans on the right.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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