ROCKing out
FE&P staffers use lunch break, talents to knit for soldiers

BY ARIE WILSON PASSWATERS
Rice News staff

When Jane Healey, Nancy Burk and Sau Mei Lees first picked up their knitting needles and yarn during their lunch break more than a year ago, the Facilities, Engineering and Planning staffers had no idea they were “sewing” the seeds of support for American troops serving in combat.

It began when Burk, an executive administrative assistant, read an article in a knitting newsletter about projects for American troops overseas. Because U.S. soldiers, airmen and Marines endure bitter cold temperatures during the long winters in Afghanistan, there is a need for liners for soldiers’ helmets, which can be uncomfortable and provide little warmth. The handmade liners, which must be constructed to exact specifications, would help protect the service members from the elements.

	JEFF FITLOW
	Pictured from left are Nancy Burk, Rama Sundaresan, Jane Healey, Sau Mei Lees, Linda Humphreys, Mindy Bailey, Rosa Gonzalez, Jewel Uhl-Chambers and Belinda Reyna.

The article was enough to spur Burk into action.

“That’s what made me decide I wanted to start knitting,” Burk said. “I knitted my first helmet liner this past August and sent it to a friend’s son in Afghanistan.”

Healey, director of financial and business services, and Lees, a department coordinator, joined Burk, and the trio started working on their projects during their lunch hour.

“People would see us working and would stop by to chat for a minute during lunch,” Burk said. “After a while, we had others who thought it looked fun.”

Co-workers who knew how to knit or crochet, as well as others who wanted to learn the craft, began to show interest, Burk said. What started out as three people with a shared interest had turned into nearly a dozen women working for a cause. The Rice Owls Crocheting and Knitting (ROCK) group had been formed.

Wanting to direct their efforts to a joint project that could be tackled by those with any level of needlework skills, members of ROCK decided to undertake another project for the troops. That’s when Lees discovered the Handmade Afghans to Thank Our Armed Forces Project, or HAP, an effort that has knitters and crocheters in every state making 6-by-9-inch rectangles to be pieced together to form twin-bed-sized afghans for wounded and recovering soldiers.

“It’s a good project because we all knit at different levels,” Lees said. “This is something that all of us could do.”

Every couple of months HAP hosts a “put-together” event where volunteers lay out 49 rectangles for each afghan. After the individual pieces are sorted by color, the rectangles are laid out, numbered, pinned together, photographed and bagged with a skein of yarn for crocheting the afghan together. Another volunteer then takes the pieces home and completes the work. The finished afghan is placed in a large clear plastic bag, tied with patriotic ribbon and delivered to military medical facilities.

Since May, the ROCK group has completed 98 rectangles — enough for two complete afghans.

“We enjoy working on the projects, and knowing that it might bring some comfort to a soldier who has been wounded serving our country is a great feeling,” Burk said.

Visit the ROCK at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=132442882802.