The Downtown Knit Collective

Special projects - Relay for Life

The Canadian Cancer Society Relay for Life is an overnight non-competitive event that celebrates cancer survivors and pays tribute to loved ones. It involves teams of 10 people who take turns walking or running around a track to raise funds for the Canadian Cancer Society. In the case of the DKC team, we KNIT all night.

www.dkcknitsforacure.blogspot.com

June 2009

The Downtown Knit Collective celebrated its 5th year of participation at the Canadian Cancer Society Relay for Life last June. Our team first participated in the Relay in 2004 to honour a past DKC president, Annabelle Dawson, who died of brain cancer approximately 8 years ago. It was from watching Annabelle's courageous cancer journey that motivated the group to come up with creative methods to fight back…365 days of the year.

Annabelle came up with the idea to create a book of knitting patterns for chemo caps. Knitting designers from around the world submitted their patterns for inclusion. The money raised from the sale of these books was donated to cancer charities in Canada and the U.S. This became Annabelle's legacy. In an effort to expand and continue Annabelle's legacy, the DKC entered a team in the Relay for Life. Our first year, the tent was decorated with the original "Annabelle's Caps". That evening, we also launched our "Knitting for a Cure" program.

"Knitting for a Cure" is an ongoing initiative. Donations of pink yarn are received from various yarn companies and members knit this yarn into pink scarves. Every month, scarves are collected and delivered to the Canadian Cancer Society who distribute them to various hospitals and hospices. Every scarf comes with a tag signed by the knitter and may include words of inspiration, such as "From one survivor to another". The DKC wants everyone to have their own "pink ribbon of hope".

Our theme this year's Relay was "Think Pink for Patrick." Our inspiration, our dear friend and the vice president of programming for the DKC; Patrick had just been diagnosed with cancer. Team members, Denise Powell, Carol Adams, Dawn Juruc, Sandy Wetherald, Pat Herschmann, Andrea Eves, Laura Ewing, Wendy Mauzeroll, Christina Simionovici and Joan Kass took turns knitting a pink scarf for Patrick throughout the evening. In addition, the team raised approximated $5000 in donations for the Cancer Society.

June 2008

We came, we celebrated, we remembered... June 20th at Forest Hill Memorial Park.

Once again, the DKC combined with the Toronto Spiders participated in the Relay for Life to raise funds for the Canadian Cancer Society.

What a night... our brightly-lit site was a hive of activity. All night long, our site was busy with not only our team participants but so many visitors. Members of other teams dropped by to try their hand at spinning with Julia Lee or Denise. Judith Somersett was busy teaching knitting to newbies on a "community scarf". Jody and Nina from Creative Yarns joined us for several hours. Other knitters and family members dropped by to see what we were up to. The night passed so quickly, we couldn't believe the sun was already rising.

Thank you to Pat Herschman, Julia Lee, Carol Mather Miles, Denise Powell, Wannietta Prescod (and Amanda), Cristina Simionovici, Judith Somersett, Carole Thomas, Andrea Eves and Sonja Fijn for joining me in raising $6417 for the Canadian Cancer Society. In addition, we contributed an additional 87 scarves to the DKC Knitting for a Cure initiative. Thank you to all of you who sponsored us!

September 2007

This year, your DKC Knitting for a Cure team raised $4,594.00, the second-highest amount raised by any team at the Central Toronto Region Relay event held at Forest Hill Memorial Park on June 22nd-June 23rd. Congratulations to team members: Barb Aikman, Sonja Fijn, Julia Lee, Carol Mather Miles, Denise Powell, Wannietta Prescod, Cristina Simionovici, Judith Somersett, Carole Thomas and Joan Kass.

This wonderful group of women braved very cold temperatures (so cold, you could see your breath) to knit all night. We wrapped ourselves in blankets and huddled close to our camping lanterns but 'knit on, we did'. Our spinners, Julia, Barb and Denise had their wheels whirling to rpoduce lovely pink yarn. Wannietta caught a wireless signal and kept the DKC Knitting for a Cure blog updated throughout the night. We even had some knitters who came by to visit and knit for a while. Drea, in fact, stayed all night! Pizza arrived at midnight. Wannietta and Cristina made a Tim's run and finally the sun came up. Who can forget the 120 Cherry Timbits that Wannietta brought along...one Timbit per team member per hour, of course!

It was a night of fun, friendship and fundraising. Our tent decorated with 65 scarves attracted many a participant off the track to have a look/touch. By the end of the night, we had filled a large box with 85 scarves and one chemo cap, some collected at DKC meetings but many knit overnight, which we presented to Lindsay Grange of the Cancer Society at the Relay's closing ceremonies.

We were also very pleased this year to be represented in the Relay's Survivor Lap by Sharon Hampson, a breast cancer survivor and past member of the DKC. It really made us proud to watch Sharon walk the lap wearing a Knitting for a Cure scarf.

Thank you to the team members...you were awesome! Thank you also to the many many yarn companies who donated PINK yarn...there will be lots of pink yarn available at the Dr. Knit table each meeting for all DKC members to knit into pink scarves.

Pictures from this year's event and a list of yarn companies making donations can be found below.

For the second year in a row, the DKC has had a team in the Canadian Cancer Society Relay for Life. Overnight, June 23-24th, found DKC team members Marsha White, Marg Yamanaka, Cera Maugey, Sonja Fijn, Tanya Astolfo, Laura Ewing, Barbara Angier, Denise Powell, Wannietta Prescod and Joan Kass busily knitting pink scarves in support of breast cancer. Sonja Fijn's wonderful "Knit for the Cure" signs along with the many many lovely pink scarves hanging from the sides of the tent drew a great deal of attention from other Relay participants. Many thanks to the generous yarn donations from Needful Yarns, Kertzer and Estelle Designs. These scarves will be donated to Breast Cancer victims and survivors.

Together, our team members raised $2,849.00 for the cancer society. Bravo! Did we have fun? Of course. Knitting together, Wannietta doing a coffee run to Tim's at 2:30 a.m., huddling in the tent to keep warm as the evening got chilly, Cera knitting on her knitting machine...the memories are fond and happy. Consider joining us next year....