Joy Sargeant, also known as the "Shoe Lady of St. Marc" and the "Crafty Lady" spent 10-11 months per year for 12 years living in Haiti. While she was living there she served the Haitian people by distributing many thousands of shoes, teaching on the radio, and working in the hospitals. During her time working with the hospitals, she saw a large number of babies die from a lack of the most basic of needs.

A premature baby isn't developed enough to regulate its own body heat, making the use of incubators essential in the care of babies here in the United States.

A leading cause of death in premature babies in countries without incubators is loss of heat. The stress of being unable to regulate temperature is an indirect contributor in deaths that are typically attributed to breathing problems.

The lack of resources in Haiti means that incubators are extremely rare and a lot of babies are dying as a result.

In order to stop the dying, the "Shoe Lady" became the "Hat Lady". Although she is listed in the Guiness Book of Records (or should be) as the world's most productive knitter, she knew that she couldn't knit enough hats to satisfy the incredible need in Haiti so she wrote letters to all the people that she knew in Grand Rapids who knew how to knit and soon had them knitting preemie hats for babies.

It's now time to step up this program. I want every baby that is born in Haiti to receive a hat.


Hats for Haiti

The Shoe Lady of St. Marc needs your help.

 

A few hours worth of knitting
from the "Hat Lady".

I will do my part by ensuring that any hats that are sent to me will be distributed to the midwives, clinic, and hospitas that are responsible for delivering most babies in Haiti.

If you would like to help with this project, here are several ways that you can help whether you're a knitter or non-knitter.

  • You can let people know about this project by printing this web page and posting it on bulletin boards in churches, restaurants, and factories.
  • You can buy yarn for a knitter.
  • You can start a knitting group. Knitting groups can be formed with very young children all the way up to people in nursing homes.
  • You can collect hats from local knitters and ship them to me.

Hats for Haiti
10844 Deerwood SE
Lowell, MI 49331
 You can also contact me at (616) 897-5672 or Joy at (616) 690-0331