‘Everybody needs a hat’
Norwalk woman’s knitting benefits Wilton Toys for Tots program
It’s only October, but one city resident and avid crafter has been preparing all year for the Christmas holiday season. Lifelong Norwalk resident Linda Bracken, 68, recently completed 175 knitted hats to be distributed this year as part of Wilton’s Toys for Tots charity drive.
Wilton’s Toys for Tots organizer, Matthew McMahon, recently collected the near hundreds of hats from Bracken’s home at Kingsway Senior Housing on Westport Avenue. Bracken began working on the hats last Christmas.
“(Bracken) emailed me some time around last Christmas and said, ‘I am here. I have time and this particular hobby, and I want to help.’ I said great, we always take help,” McMahon said. “She said, ‘If I were to knit hats for you, would you be able to distribute them along with the toys?’ It’s beautiful craftsmanship. She’s very talented.”
The Marine Veterans of Fairfield County operates Toys for Tots drives for seven of the municipalities surrounding Ridgefield, McMahon said. For the last decade, McMahon’s organized Wilton’s drive.
“Our campaign, which is based out of Ridgefield, collects and distributes around 30,000 toys each year,” McMahon said. “We collect through all of our partners and distribute generally through charities, social services, church or schools. We don’t have the ability to vet people who receive toys, so we rely on our partners for distribution. We set up the facility as a warehouse where everything will be sorted by age, and charities will come through and more or less shop.”
Social workers or distributors will select gifts for specific children based on interests and age, McMahon said.
While the Toys for Tots drive starts in earnest around Thanksgiving, the organization begins accepting donations in early October, which led to Bracken’s contribution.
Keeping with the organization’s distribution method,
Bracken packaged and organized the hats she knitted into groups based on size.
“I was so blown away I felt she should be recognized, more so than just my thanks,” McMahon said.
Bracken chose Toys for Tots as she lives on Westport Avenue, which often has signs, promoting the drive. Bracken, a retired secretary, contacted her former employer as the office collected toys for the drive as well.
“I got (McMahon’s) name from an excoworker. (McMahon) is really a nice man. He came down like it was nothing to pick them up,” Bracken said. “I can’t get around. I’m kind of immobile and doing hats is a dream come true because I can work my brains out.”
Bracken used a loom to create the hats, which she wanted to look uniform and professional, and topped each with a storepurchased pom-pom.
“I decided everybody needs a hat and at Christmas time it’s nice,” Bracken said. “Kids are getting toys, but you don’t want an old, pilled hat. I thought it’d be great to stick on top of a package. I got these bags that were the right size and it’ll look like a little gift. You don’t want them all rubbing together.”
As to why she chose hats as opposed to scarves or mittens, Bracken said it’s something she knows kids will wear. Bracken originally planned to make 100 and told McMahon she would have the hats to him around Halloween but finished ahead of schedule and exceeded her own expectations.
“I chose originally right before Halloween, not that they’d distribute them then, but I picked that I make Ukrainian eggs for my friends for Christmas and those take time,” Bracken said. “I told them how about 100 but then I kept going and I was into it. I chose 175 since it’s a round number. I said, ‘I’ll stop there.’ I’m not doing the doing eggs after all because I have cataracts and I’m not getting surgery this year.”
Instead, Bracken said she is going to begin working on the hats for next year.
“I’m assuming he would like them for next year too and I can make even more. This way, if people know about it, even one person who can make a difference, maybe more people will do things,” Bracken said. “I thought, ‘I have a reason to be on this earth.’ This is so perfect, each hat I made I was thinking a child is going to get this. It gives me something to do and them something to get.”