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Territory implements campaign to knit for others.
The art of knitting in the Netherlands is no longer considered dull or old fashioned. Rather, it is quite the trendy thing to do and The Salvation Army there is using knitting to revamp its mission outreaches.
In 2012, the Netherlands’ Climate League Association initiated Warm Jumper Day, asking people to be more sensible in their energy use. Piggy-backing on this concept—and as part of its 125th anniversary celebration—The Salvation Army organized its own campaign: Knit to Fit, a challenge to both men and women to knit a piece of clothing for someone who had no one to knit one for them.
The idea began in 2011 when Lt. Colonel Ine Voorham and Commissioner Marja van Vliet took their knitting projects with them to work to advertise their new campaign. During the Christmas holidays, they knitted 250 squares, using them to enhance their ad posters. And the ads worked.
“It was as if we threw a stone into the water,” said Marjorie Sprokkereef, secretary to the territorial commander, The Netherlands and Czech Republic Territory.
People from corps, home league members and residents in the Army’s Welfare and Healthcare Foundation centers joined in to knit various items of clothing.
In February 2012, on Warm Jumper Day, van Vliet and Voorham took a van full of jumpers, scarves, hats, mittens and socks to De Haven, a relief shelter for the homeless in Amsterdam. Again in March, they took another load to a shelter in Gelderland.
The campaign continues today and has extended to coffee klatches and social clubs outside the Army. People are still knitting for someone else. Because of this, bags of clothing have been distributed to five locations in the Netherlands.
From Revive
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