With colorful yarns they purchased on their own and yarns that were donated to them, a group of crocheters at Winter Haven Resort have spent the last year preparing caps that will be handed out during Brownsville Police Department’s biggest Christmas event.
The ladies, performing a labor of love, gathered about once a week to knit and crochet nearly 700 caps that will be distributed Saturday during Brownsville PD’s annual Christmas for Kids toy giveaway, said Louise Chosy, the group organizer.
This is about the third year the group has provided caps to Brownsville PD. In 2021, they provided the department with 500 hats. “It will be 700 hats by Saturday,” Chosy said.
“They (Brownsville PD) do good work for the kids. The Christmas for Kids is a good thing,” she said.
“Some kids don’t get anything except for what we give them,” added Mary Pickelhaupt, also a resident of Winter Haven.
And with cooler weather anticipated this weekend and into next week -with the highs in the low 60s and the overnight lows in the upper 50s, the caps could not be handed out at a better time.
On Thursday, a group of women continued their handiwork on the caps that that afternoon were picked up by three Brownsville police officers, who gladly accepted them. There were pink caps, blue caps, yellow caps, green caps, and multicolored caps in all sizes.
To their delight, the officers were also each given a cap which they each tried on.
Officer Carlo Jimenez talked about the yearly toy drive the police department holds and how the department has different events throughout the year to collect money to purchase the gifts.
“We are very grateful and thankful for everything that is done for us. This (donation) is going to help a lot especially for the kids in need, especially since it is going to get cold this weekend, so I am sure it will come in very, very handy. Thank you, ladies, for everything you do for us. We really appreciate it,” Jimenez said. “It’s nice to see how the community comes together to help the people in need.
Jimenez said the police department expects about 2,000 children to show up at Saturday’s toy giveaway which drew a loud gasp from the women, with several exclaiming “we don’t have enough hats.”
At least year’s event, about 2,500 kids showed up.
“We crochet all year long,” Chosy said. “Some months I will put a rush on, I will say ‘we are going to do nothing but hats this month’.” “We more or less focus on the young kids because some of them don’t get anything.”
The group has also adopted a couple of Brownsville Independent School District elementary schools and earlier this week handed out goodies to the students.
“We give them a pillow, with a homemade pillowcase with some gifts inside them and one of them came up to me and said, ‘I’ve never had never had a pillow before’. This was a second grader. It breaks your heart, it breaks your heart,” Chosy said.
Every Thursday the women gather for about two hours to crochet. They will then continue at home.
“Most of us don’t have a life because all we do is crochet,” Chosy jokingly said.
Pickelhaupt said the yarn used is either donated to them or they purchase it with money they get from the Chapel at Winter Haven. “We all pitch in once in a while” too, she said.
How many bundles or spools of yarn they use to make the caps, is unknown but it is “a lot,” Chosy and Pickelhaupt both said.
“You learn when you start giving away that some people,” don’t have anything, Chosy said.
To see more, view Brownsville Herald photojournalist Miguel Roberts’ full photo gallery here:
