Tulsa World: Warm heart providing warm hats for homeless

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Warm heart providing warm hats for homeless
A Catoosa crafter is seeking yarn and volunteers.

Linda Deal is working to crochet as many hats as she can for Tulsa's homeless people before her deadline, Make a Difference Day, in October. Cory Young/Tulsa World

By JARREL WADE World Staff Writer
Published: 8/26/2008 2:04 AM
Last Modified: 8/26/2008 3:25 AM

A Catoosa crafter is seeking yarn and volunteers.

When a woman who's obsessed with crocheting has a living room full of handmade curtains, purses, placemats, rugs, blankets, dolls and scarves, she has to find another outlet for her hobby.

That's how Linda Deal of Catoosa came up with her idea for Hats for Homeless — and she's looking for help.

"My family has all the hats and blankets they can stand, so I had to find someone else to give them to," she said.

Hats for Homeless is a small, one-woman effort to give handmade, crocheted hats to homeless people in Tulsa twice a year.

Deal is gearing up for national Make a Difference Day on Oct. 25, when she will give away her hats at Tulsa's Day Center for the Homeless, she said. Then she will replenish her stock and return to the center a few days before Christmas.

Make a Difference Day is a national day of volunteering, and several organizations take part each year in the Tulsa area.

For each of the last three years, Deal has made about 100 hats. She spends about two hours on each one, she said.

In her fourth year, Deal has decided to step up her effort by creating a Web site and by making even more hats. She already has about 45 made with two months to go.

"I just don't want people to send cash," she said about her Web site, which offers people a way to donate. "I don't want cash. If they want to send yarn, I'll make" the hats.

But Deal also wants people to take part who like to crochet or would like to learn, she said.

Her Web site includes a blog, a countdown to Make a Difference Day and links to crochet sites, as well as the request for yarn donations.

So far, Deal has received one donation, she said.

"I'll send them patterns or people can go online and get patterns" if they want to make hats themselves, she said.

Deal has taken relatives and co-workers from CGA Engineers, where she is an administrative assistant, to the Day Center for the Homeless in recent years.

Deal's grandson Brandon Robinson, 14, said some of the people were strange to him initially, but that quickly changed after they began to distribute the hats.

Walking up to the Day Center with a box full of hats is awkward at first, Deal said.

"Then you ask, 'Would you like a hat?' and then you are surrounded," she said. "They are so nice. It tickles them to have something handmade.

"Web site: tulsaworld.com/hatsforhomeless

Jarrel Wade 581-8310
jarrel.wade@tulsaworld.com

Yarn donations

Hats for Homeless
c/o Linda Deal
P.O. Box 1442
Catoosa, OK 74015

By JARREL WADE World Staff Writer

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grandmadeal, Tulsa (8/26/2008 7:29:23 AM)

Thank you, Jarrel, for getting this project out in front of the public eye. I am confident that World readers will respond profusely now that they know what to do to help. 20% of body heat is lost through the head. If we can help cover those heads, homeless people can keep 20% warmer. Every one who responds will get their name on the hatsforhomeless website. Thanks, again, Jarrel.

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