Submitted by: Mary Lee Thomson, 7/2/09

This entry relates to the past and present.

Categories of this entry: Unforgettable Experiences

This is an example of networking in Davis. In the Spring of 2008, a fried of Jane Lotter;s gaver her a pattern for a teddy bear sweater that came from a store in the Bay Area. Jane made a sweater and brought it to her aerobics class at the Davis Athletic Club. The knitters in the group were enthralled and Jane was soon passing out copies of the pattern. I went to IKEA and bought scads of inexpensive bears and we were in business.

The pattern and bears were passed from friend to friend and soon there were about 15 knitters happily using up scraps of yarn and producing sweaters. The question then became what to do with all of the bears after the grandchildren had one!

We gave some to the Yolo County Mental Health Clinic, some to the Sutter Hospital emergency and pediatrics units and then Retired Judge Donna Petre suggested we send some to the juvenile dependency court so that children who came to hearings as neglected or abused could have a bear to hold. CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) staff delivered bears to the courtroom. It worked! The kids loved the bears and the knitters’ efforts redoubled. 

We haven’t kept count of the number of bears (and bunnies, cats, etc., including one tiger), but one of the knitters did count the sweaters she made – Caryol Draper is at 100 and still knitting!