by: Sanjana Baldwa - The Winged Post
Mariko Creasman, mother of Alex (12) and Adam (’08), recently started a program entitled Hats for Haiti. She donates her time to making and selling hats in order to gather money for relief.
Creasman was inspired to help the struggling country when she made a hat for Alex and some of his friends liked it.
“A couple of his friends had admired the hat and wanted me to make one for them, but they wanted to pay me for it,” she said. Creasman felt that she could not take money from her son’s friends, but after Haiti was left devastated, she thought that it would be helpful to give the money to a well-respected charity, Partners in Health, as a donation to help those suffering in Haiti.
Partners in Health is a foundation started by a young physician named Paul Farmer. Dr. Farmer studied in Harvard Medical School and while in school, was also living and working in Haiti. He now works as an infectious disease specialist and has continued, before and after the earthquake, to provide care for patients in Haiti.
“I would encourage anybody to donate to them if they want to help out the situation in Haiti,” Creasman said.
She calls them “swirl beanies” because of the pattern on the hats.
“You can buy different kinds of yarn, and yarn varies in price,” Creasman said. “But I buy the softest that I can find usually which is alpaca, which is real soft like cashmere.”
It takes Creasman about three hours to make a hat, so she can make one per evening.
“I’m happy to knit at the pace I can knit if anybody wants a hat,” she said.
She gets the money for the hats from the students who want them.
“One student paid in cash and the other student made the donation herself, so it’s kind of an honor system,” Creasman said. “And as far as the amount, it’s whatever, they want to donate.”
If anyone is interested in purchasing a soft swirl beanie, she is absolutely open to knitting more hats. Also, for the seniors who are going to attend colleges in the East Coast, she is willing to knit hats with their school colors for the winter.
She said, “We’re running into warm weather, so I don’t think there’s going to be any demand, but I’m willing to, you know, have them contact Alex.”
Julia Shim (12) was one of the three students who bought the hat. “I thought that it was a really great way, instead of just buying a hat, that there was some kind of purpose behind it, and I thought that it was a really great way to donate to a great cause, and get a great hat.”
