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Hallie Greenberg, MS-PREP, BSN, BC, nurse educator in the Center for Nursing Excellence, is a self-proclaimed extreme knitter. She has attended yarn crawls from store-to-store, a weekend retreat called the “knit and nap,” and even frequents knitting conventions.
Inspired by a convention a few years ago, Greenberg decided to connect the knitting community to BWH through the Warm Up America program. The charity pieces together 7- by 9-inch stitched squares to create afghans, blankets, caps and other items for those in need.
Greenberg began providing baskets brimming with vibrant colored yarns and needles in waiting rooms around BWH. That’s where the thread of BWH’s involvement began.
“It’s really like ripples in a pond,” Greenberg said. “We have probably mailed off close to 2,000 squares, and the quality of the work is wonderful.”
A certain peace, along with beneficial health effects, come with knitting, Greenberg says. The hobby can lower blood pressure and calm the mind. Many of the knitting participants who work on squares are family members who are waiting for loved ones in surgery.
“Our patients often say how knitting really relaxes them while they wait,” Greenberg said. Helen Thompson, manager of Patient Access Services, is the keeper of one of the material baskets. She has seen visitors start squares and leave them for another knitter to finish.
Thus far, knitting baskets are available at the Bretholtz Center for Patients and Families and the Shapiro Cardiovascular Center, and Greenberg would like to see the effort expanded to other areas in the hospital. “A blanket may bring comfort when a person has nothing else. This is the type of thing people are providing without really knowing it,” Greenberg said. “It just proves that if you give people the opportunity to do something good, they will.”