Millstone craft club knits, crochets with care
BY JENNIFER KOHLHEPP
Staff Writer

CHRIS KELLY staff Above: Millstone Township Senior Craft Club member Lee MacDougall works on an afghan at the Millstone Township Community Center on April 24. Left: Millstone Township Mayor Nancy Grbelja (l) and Dee Ziobro, the 23rd District vice president of the New Jersey State First Aid Council, look at afghans made for people in need.

MILLSTONE - Recognizing the power of warmth in the healing process, township seniors keep knitting away.

In an effort to help fragile newborns, children and the elderly overcome serious illnesses and trauma, the Millstone Township Senior Citizens Craft Club has been knitting and crocheting blankets and lap robes since 1990.

To date, the club has made well over a thousand pieces thanks to the much-appreciated donations of wool from various local supporters such as Carol Parsons.

Throughout the years, the craft club has made and donated lap robes to local veterans through the Millstone Township Elks, blankets to children through Project Linus, which is a nonprofit that collects blankets for hospitalized children in need, and to the elderly through Tender Loving Care, which is a provider of home health care services for the elderly.

The club also recently held a luncheon at the Millstone Township Community Center, during which member Judy Jensen presented two blankets to Dee Ziobro, the 23rd District vice president of the New Jersey State First Aid Council.

According to Ziobro, the blankets will be raffled off to raise money at the council's May 2007 Mid Year Convention.

The craft club currently consists of 11 members. Blankets and robes are made thanks to Judy Jensen, Violet Carbin, Edna Patterson, Lee MacDougall, Mary Resko, Olga Terebetski, Mary Tagliareni, Lydia Randall, Rose Van Wyck, Carol Mills and Harriet Wills.

The club has lost some members over the years and is always seeking new people to join. All seniors 60 and over are welcome.

The club meets from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the first and second Tuesdays of each month at the Elks Club on Burnt Tavern Road. The club also meets on the third, fourth and fifth Tuesdays of the month at the Millstone Township Community Center.

For more information visit www.millstone.nj.us/seniors.htm.