Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Crocheted with care
Club’s creations help parents with newborns in hospital
FAYETTEVILLE — The Needle Arts Club with Washington County Extension Homemakers Council is one of 17 such clubs involved in service projects to give back to the community.
Club members have been crocheting and knitting items to donate to a nonprofit group called the Rath Brothers Organization.
Kala Rath and her husband of Fayetteville started the organization in honor of their twin sons who spent time in the neonatal intensive care unit at Mercy Hospital in Rogers. The boys were born at 32 weeks and spent six weeks in the hospital because of complications with the birth.
Rath said she wanted to do something to give back and decided on the Rath Brothers Organization, named after her sons, Waylon and Lucas, who now are healthy 2-year-olds.
In 2021, they gave Christmas stockings filled with toiletries, snacks and other items to parents with babies in the neonatal intensive care unit. In particular, Rath said she wanted to give parents special items, such as a “baby’s first Christmas” ornament.
Rath said she remembers being in the hospital at Christmastime with her sons and wanted it to feel normal. That’s why she looks for items to put in the stockings to help parents feel some sense of normalcy.
After that first Christmas, Rath said the decision was made to do something yearround for parents, not just at Christmas. So the organization gives care bags that have puzzle books, journals, pens, snacks and other items to parents as they are away from home in the neonatal unit with their babies.
She said she contacted area hospitals for ideas, and Mercy is the one that requested a crocheted octopus so that a baby will have something to grab onto, instead of grabbing a feeding or breathing tube or an IV line.
“This gives the baby something to hang onto,” Rath said. “They latch onto the tentacles of the octopus.”
Rath said she started reaching out to groups to help crochet the octopuses, and the Needle Arts Club is one that jumped on the opportunity to make the sea creatures.
Members also are making “scent squares.” This is a small crocheted item that a mother can wear in the lining of her bra for a time to help transfer her smell to her baby.
Rath said she had one of these when her babies were in the hospital, and it was a comfort to her that she could connect with her babies, even in the smallest way.
Rath and her husband, David, have four children, 4-year- old twin daughters and their twin sons. For now, she said Rath Brothers Organization has about all it can handle. But when her children are older, she said they want to help even more.
Amie Birdsong, a member of the Needle Arts Club, said the club meets from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., the first, third and fifth Tuesdays of the month at Washington County Cooperative Extension Service office at 2536 N. McConnell Ave. in Fayetteville.
Birdsong, of Farmington, said someone interested in the club does not have to know how to crochet or knit. She didn’t know how to crochet when she first started attending club meetings.
Birdsong also is involved with two other Extension Homemakers Council clubs.
Anna Goff, Washington County agent for Family and Consumer Sciences with the extension service, said the clubs are a great way for people to make new friends, learn new skills and give back to the community. Skills learned range from personal development, sewing, quilting, crocheting, food preservation, mental health, nutrition and crocheting.
The clubs are open to all ages, and individuals are welcome to join throughout the year. Club members identify the needs of a community and find ways to make a difference in Northwest Arkansas, Goff said.
Last year, Extension Homemakers Council members volunteered more than 36,000 hours with an estimated dollar value of more than $1 million back to the county, Goff said.
To learn more about the clubs, contact Goff at agoff@ uada.edu or call the Cooperative Extension Office at 479-444-1755.
For more information on Rath Brothers Organization, go to rathbros.org.