Auction Kindness

I am embarrassed to admit that the Kindness Activist I am going to tell you about now was nominated by her cousin Beth around 4 months ago…  And she is soooo deserving to be named a Kindness Activist, I cannot believe it has taken me this long to tell you about her!  It is just, well, I have not felt all that creative in the last few months, and to be blunt, maybe I haven’t felt all that kind either…   So, I have been neglecting this project, and for that I am sorry.  Not working on Kindness Activist is really wrong of me.  For one thing, it is wrong because by not writing about kindness, I am not reminding YOU about it, and not helping to spread it around the world at a time when we especially need more of it!  But it is also wrong because by not thinking about kindness, not looking for kindness, and not writing about it, I am only perpetuating my “unkind” mentality.  Sigh.  Today I choose to be kind.  I choose to open my eyes, my mind, and my heart, and be alert.  I will notice when kindness crosses my path.  And I will tell you about KATHE Hannauer, our newest Kindness Activist. 

If you read the story here about Kindness Activist Karen Hoyer ( Knit Hat Kindness ), you know I am not a knitter.  I couldn’t knit a sock if my life depended on it.  So, today’s Kindness Activist impresses me from the get go just by being able to create this like these, with her own 2 hands!!

Isn't this a BEAUTIFUL piece?

And check out how cute and COZY this set looks!!

But the KIND part, see, the really KIND part, is that Kathe is not knitting these beautiful pieces for herself.  And she is not even knitting them to sell at a craft show or on Etsy…  No, she is knitting them to auction off, to give the proceeds to CHARITIES.  100% of the proceeds!!  So, her time, her supplies, her talent – all poured into beautiful pieces which end up benefit very deserving organizations!!!  Isn’t that amazing? 

Here she is - the newest Kindness Activist Kathe!

Kathe told me it all started after Hurricane Sandy in 2012.  She lives in New York City, and she wanted to help out after the storm.  The Knights of Columbus in her Northern Manhattan neighborhood was looking on Facebook for volunteers to help affected people – they would rent vans and load them with food, cleaning supplies, and other necessities then deliver them to Staten Island.  Kathe said, “I knew that all money donated was going directly to help people (not disparaging the Red Cross or other large organizations, but nobody in this case was getting a salary, and the labor was 100% volunteer).  I spent a morning assisting them with logistics, and started to wonder how else I could help.  I looked at my embarrassingly large yarn stash, and figured I could probably turn ten bucks’ worth of yarn into something that someone would be willing to pay $40 or $50 for, especially if they knew the money was going to a good cause. I pitched the idea to the head of the chapter and he was more than willing to put a dedicated page on their website with a PayPal button to make donating easy, and we were off.  We raised aver $1500 that first year.”

See, it is actions like THAT that set Kindness Activists apart!!   They go above and beyond!  It is more than donating money, more than volunteering time.  Kathe developed a plan that is ongoing and sustainable to use her talents to make the world a better place!!  I love it. 

More of her amazing work

Katherine has a Facebook group called Small Things and that is where the KINDNESS happens!  She told me how it all works: “I knit something, post a photo of it in the group with an opening bid, and then people bid in the comments. I (more or less arbitrarily) decide when to end the auction.  There can be anywhere from 2 bidders to protracted bidding wars involving a half dozen people!  Once I get confirmation of their donation, I put the item in the mail to them. Sometimes, an auction is won by a local friend or colleague, which means I can avoid the post office-that’s the only part I don’t enjoy!”

And, like I mentioned earlier, 100% of the donation goes directly to the charity!  Kathe doesn’t take any of the money to buy supplies or pay herself for her time and work – it all goes to support the causes!  “I have a pinned post at the top of the page giving auction winners links to a few choices, and they make the donation directly so I don’t have to deal with handling funds at all,” she explained.

I asked her why she doesn’t SELL the beautiful items she creates instead of using them to get donations as she does.  I think her answer really shows how KIND her heart is, “I think that generally crafting is a pretty tough way to try to make money. I suspect people wouldn’t be willing to pay what I would have to charge to make it worth my time, and the idea of maintaining and promoting an online shop doesn’t appeal to me. It’s different if it’s going to a good cause-and the charities make it easy for me.”  So, think about that a second:  she doesn’t think people would be willing to pay what she would have to charge for the pieces to make it worth her time, yet essentially, she MAKES THEM NOW FOR ABSOLUTELY NO MONEY!  A heart of gold, I tell you!!! 

And look how pretty this one is!!!

Kathe, like me, roots for the “little guy” and says when choosing charities to donate to, “I prioritize groups where I have personal contacts:  it makes confirming donations easy, and I like supporting local efforts and smaller charities that don’t have the fundraising clout of the big guys. We’ve raised money for literacy and after-school programs in my neighborhood, as well as a local dog rescue and more recently, the Lelt Foundation, which was founded by a friend and colleague of mine.”

Lest you think that her life is all knitting, no work, let me explain something:  Kathe is a FREELANCE VIOLINIST.  I have not gotten to hear her play, but I am hoping that happens at some point!!  Because of her work, she says she, has, “…knitted in lots of venues, from Broadway pits to backstage at Carnegie Hall, and on the subway (small projects like hats and socks are the most portable) It also means I often take finished objects along to gigs and browbeat my colleagues into modeling them for me so I can grab photos!  Recently I started taking some classes at a local community college, and have been known to work on my sock-in-progress during a lecture.”  There you have it – if you win an auction at Small Things not only are you helping out a charity, but your gorgeous new scarf just might have seen the inside of a Broadway music pit!!

Kathe in action

Kathe estimates that this project brings in around $1000-$1500 per season (usually September through March).  And she has been doing this since 2012, so, whew, you do the math!  It is amazing!!  I asked about the YARN, where does she get it, because from what I have seen, that stuff isn’t cheap.  “The stash yarn I've been using is mostly stuff for which I didn't really have another use-stuff I picked up inexpensively at sales and on the internet with no projects in mind (any knitter will confess to having done this from time to time, and can attest to the fact that one's stash can grow rapidly out of control when one succumbs to Yarn Lust). That said, I haven’t really made much of a dent in the stash, because people keep donating yarn. I’m really trying to work my way through the stash, though, honest.”

I know from following her on Facebook that Kathe’s recent knitting has been focused on the infamous pink pussy hats made popular by the Women’s March.  Only, because of her musical talents, she not only makes human sized hats, she also knits INSTRUMENT SIZED HATS!!!  Isn’t this the most adorable activist violin you have ever seen???

Too sweet (and too nasty!  Go little violin go!)

To sum things up, Kathe told me a quote from Pema Chodron that inspires her, “We don't set out to save the world; we set out to wonder how other people are doing and to reflect on how our actions affect other people's hearts.” 

Well maam, YOUR ACTIONS definitely inspire my heart.  Thank you for putting your kindness out into the world – you make this a better place. 

You can join Kathe’s Small Things Facebook group and get in on the bidding action at:   https://www.facebook.com/groups/104470039721825/ (or search Small Things in FB) – send a join group request

You can check out the organizations currently featured in Small Things here:                

- The Bully Project, which rescues and finds homes for Pitbulls and Pitbull mixes -          http://www.bullyproject.com/

 - The Lelt Foundation, which provides nutrition, education, and jobs to severely malnourished and        impoverished families in Ethiopia - http://leltfoundation.org/

And if you want to see Kathe’s other passion, yoga, check out her website here:  http://www.yogadolce.com/

Knit Hat Kindness

If you have read any of my writing you can pretty much figure out which “team” I am on.  I try not to look at the world in such black and white terms, but I guess this is a time where to tell the whole story clearly I need to announce that I am proud to be a bleeding heart liberal feminist.  My friends all know that, so they assumed that I would be going to the Women’s March in DC on January 21.  I mean, it was taking place practically in my backyard.

Women's March logo

Only, quietly, I knew I was not going…  I hadn’t talked about it.  I hadn’t really even formulated the reasons for skipping it in my own head.  But I was not going. 

I wasn’t scared to march.  I wasn’t apathetic about the issues.  I was very worried and concerned about the election results.  I was EXTREMELY nervous about the rights of women, immigrants, people of color, and the LGBTQ communities being hurt by the new administration. But I just could not find the motivation, the SPARK, to march.

A friend asked if we might be able to house his girlfriend and her friend who were coming for the march.  “Sure,” I said, knowing I myself wasn’t going (but not telling him that) but thinking, “We can drop them off at metro and they can go march”.

People talked about what they were going to write on their signs.  People went on about how excited they were to march.  People were booking hotels, buying plane tickets, ordering t-shirts and buttons, and I was quietly, dully going about my daily life.  I know part of it was a general malaise, perhaps a depression, about the state of the country.  I felt lost and helpless, and I wasn’t sure what showing up on the national mall with a handmade sign the day after inauguration would do to change any of that.

THEN I GOT TAGGED IN A FACEBOOK POST BY THIS WOMAN… 

Do I know Karen from Chicago?

I asked my partner, “David, do you know someone named Karen Hoyer from Chicago?”.  He confirmed that he knew her, and that she is a clown in children’s hospitals like he is.  Here is the post she tagged me in:

      “Susan Thompson-Gaines, (2 more people tagged) are you going to the Washington Women's               March? I am at a knit-a-long to make PussyHats for women to wear - Would you wear it if I sent           it to you? (You can say "no I have a hat already" and my feelings won't be hurt!                                      https://www.pussyhatproject.com/”

Yes, out of the blue, a woman who at the time I thought was a complete stranger (but it turns out I had met once in Chicago) was offering to HAND KNIT ME A PUSSY HAT.  I was NOT planning to march, and I had been feeling rather on the fence about the whole idea of the pussy hats, but then suddenly someone I do not know offers to make me one, and that act of kindness was the nudge I needed!!!

Seriously, from the time she asked if I would like her to make me a hat, I was 100% in.  I don’t know if it was the “invitation” I needed to feel included, the nudge in the butt I deserved to get in action, or what, but it WORKED. 

Let’s be clear:  I do not knit. I am in awe of anyone who can.  Many people who made hats for the march poo-pooed the idea that they were difficult.  “Oh, it is nothing!”   “I can make one lickety-split!”  “Those hats are so easy!”. 

NO.  THEY.  ARE.  NOT.

To someone who looks at a ball of yarn and wonders how in the hell THAT could ever turn into a sweater, I tell you that KNIT HATS ARE AMAZING.

Karen in her hat on the way to the march in Chicago!

So just like that!  Karen gave me the nudge I needed.  One afternoon I peeked out on our porch to find a little manila envelope with my very own pink hat inside.  It fits well.  It is warm.  It is lovely.  And it is powerful.

My hat, my sign, my main squeeze, and my capitol in the background.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR KINDNESS, KAREN.  When I marched, you marched.  The issues you told me that you care about: equal pay, reproductive rights, freedom of the press, a ban on handguns, and poverty are also issues that are close to my heart.  I appreciate your nudge.  The march was something I NEEDED, but I didn’t even know it.  Spending the day jam packed on the National Mall with millions of diverse, caring, passionate people was a spark that ignited a fire in me.  My shoulder blades are as sore as can be from holding my sign up high all day, but every time I feel a twinge of pain in them it makes me smile.   

A sea of humanity, dotted by little clouds of PINK everywhere you looked.

You, Karen Hoyer, are a Kindness Activist.  And you are #WhyIMarch  

A marcher in DC - isn't her sign awesome?

Knit Kindness

Because of this Kindness Activist project, I am constantly on the look-out for KINDNESS.  Well, luckily on Valentine’s Day I came across a great post on Facebook.  It was written by a friend in Omaha named Mary, and it said:

“My fellow knitters, if you have yarn left over from projects, consider knitting a cozy for the kitties at The Nebraska Humane Society.  The cozy should be 14x18 inches. Use 4 strands of yarn and large needles....14-16 size. Doing this makes the cozy plush and warm for the kitties.  My Mom gave me a whole lot of yarn, some of which I used for the 4 cozies you see here.  You can also drop off yarn at The Humane Society for knitters to pick up.”

Here is what Mary's Kitty Cozies look like, aren't they sweet??

Well, I am not a knitter and am very impressed by people who can make anything out of a ball of yarn!!  When I was a kid I tried to crochet for a while and all I ended up making were really LONG, extremely SKINNY belts…  Yes, they were just a single crocheted stitch on and on and on and on…  Not all that functional, nor fashionable… 

But Mary can knit things like SCARVES.  And KITTY COZIES!  Talk about adorable!  I can only imagine those tiny kitties snuggled up on one of Mary’s cozies!  Too much cuteness, I am sure!

This cat does NOT have a cozy.  Instead, it has a yellow box.  I met it last month at Crumbs and Whiskers,
a "cat cafe" in Washington DC.  I think it would be even cuter if it was sitting on a cozy.  

I asked Mary about this kind act she was doing.  It turns out, she is a very busy woman.  I knew she is a proud Grandma, but didn’t know that she is also a NURSE at an endoscopy center.  She told me, “As I was taking care of a patient last fall, she mentioned knitting the cozies with yarn she would have left-over from projects or pick up at garage sales. I was helping my Mom clean out her closets a couple of years ago, and she gave me oodles and oodles of red yarn. I combined the red yarn with other colors and have made scarves for the homeless and me latest project has been the cozies.”

Ummm, did you catch that?  Not only does she make COZIES FOR KITTIES, she makes SCARVES FOR HOMELESS PEOPLE.  Mary, you are a gem.  Using your knitting to help others is amazingly kind.

Mary and her sweetheart.  What a kind woman!  If I ever need an endoscopy while I am in Omaha, I know who to call.  :)

So the rest of you knitters, yes YOU, with balls and balls (is it officially called skeins and skeins??) of yarn that you are not using.  BE LIKE MARY!  Make these sweet kitty cozies to help kittens in your local Humane Society have a kinder life. 

I Googled “kitty cozies” to see if there was info online about them and found a lot about the Arizona Humane Society wanting people to help make cozies!  They are doing theirs out of fleece.  You can read about it here.

Cats in Michigan want to be comfy, too!  The Michigan Humane Society put this out.

But really, I imagine that cats EVERYWHERE would love a soft little piece to call their own.  Thanks for the inspiration, Mary.  Now if only I could learn how to knit…

This is Louie, my nephew Jordan's cat.  He lives in Omaha.  Louie, do you want a cat cozy???

Have YOU done something kind?  Are you a KINDNESS ACTIVIST?  Or maybe you were the recipient of kindness, or have seen something awesomely kind.  Tell me about it!  Just send me a quick email to kindnessactivist@gmail.com.  And while you are at it, “like” Kindness Activist on Facebook!