Such wonderful people at Baylor

Vivian, Lena, Joyce and Jan went to the Baylor Regional Medical Center today, Thursday, April 24. What a wonderful place and the people are sooooo nice. We met Gigi Steele, who is a retired nurse who volunteers her time at the cancer unit. What a wonderful person. She's the kind of nurse that you would look forward to seeing come into your room if you were in the hospital. She would just brighten your day. And Robin Jacks is in charge of Guest Services. When she saw us, her eyes lit up. She told us how everyone just loves our caps and is all the talk around the chemo center. She is such a nice person, really friendly. We were so happy to be there. We took 50 caps for them to give to patients this time. The caps will last them a little while until we can get more caps made. We sat with Gigi for quite awhile (her day off from volunteering) and had such a good time with serious talk, fun talk and girl talk! The thing that we didn't expect out of our project is all the wonderful people that we are meeting along the way. It seems as if everyone that works there is nice. We didn't get to meet all of them but, if Robin and Gigi are examples of the staff that works there, we are impressed.

There are many nice people in the world, aren't there?

Eva and Luisa

Eva was so moved when she saw people with the caps that she wanted to learn to crochet. Loisa taught her and she completed caps within the first week. Here she is learning to crochet.

Baylor Cancer Center

We started to deliver caps to Baylor about a month ago and they are being well received! I've gotten calls from Gigi, the volunteer at Baylor. She called to tell me how happy the caps are making people. Next week she is going to take pictures and send them to us. The pictures will be of people with our caps. This is a picture of the first time our group delivered caps to Baylor. We're bringing a bunch of caps there tomorrow, April 24th.

More knitters and crocheters

Wow! We have more knitters and crocheters! Carolyn from Wylie came by yesterday, bringing us three caps that she made. She was worried about her seams. She thought that they didn't look good. I looked at the caps and said "What seams?" They were great seams, better than mine. You could actually turn the cap inside out without seeing the seam. We welcome Carolyn to our group!
Our caps are looking very springy! Barbara Overall brought some darling caps in. They actually have a fancy border around them.
Rose is our newest 'new' knitter. By that I mean that she's not only new to the center but she hasn't knit in years. Her goal is to be able to knit and talk at the same time! We get quite a kick out of her.

Visit to Baylor Medical Center

Vivian, Lena and Joyce went to Baylor to deliver our first batch of caps to them. The center was very acceptive of the caps and was so excited to know that we will be delivering more caps to them.

Some new spring caps

Here are some new caps that were sent to Joyce.

New places, faces, and caps

Our project is going very well. We have a couple of new places to bring caps, Richardson Regional Medical Center, Parkland Hospital in Dallas and Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. Tomorrow caps will be delivered to Baylor Hospital where they showed an interest in our caps. Two new ladies came into the center today. One of them has a friend who is the sister to Robin Roberts. Robin's sister is in New Orleans where she is also a TV broadcaster. We were pretty excited about that. She's going to tell her about our project.
While we were at the center, a cancer survivor called to thank us for the caps that she received. She just loves them and wanted us to know. I got a thank you note from one of the ladies that I sent caps to in MI. She, too, was really excited about her caps and she wanted us to know that the cancerous tumor is shrinking. That was good to hear too.
We're making spring/summer caps and I think that we're going to have to make more. Oh, we also will be going to a nursing home to find knitters and crocheters!

Our Story Was on line in the Lion Brand website

Here is the story as it was originally entered into the Lion Brand Website.
Vivian and I were having tea with Joyce, our friend who had gone through chemotherapy, her hair growing back nicely. We were sitting at the Allen Senior Recreation Center in Allen TX. Vivian and I were knitting. Joyce told us that when she was undergoing chemo, she had a cap to wear to bed after she lost her hair. She said that the seams were kind of painful when she slept in it. She said that the caps helped because the skin is so tender after the hair loss. Vivian went home and looked up chemo caps on the internet. She found a website with patterns for knitting and crocheting. A few days later, she brought the patterns in. We were so excited to see that we could do something to help those that would need the caps. So we started to knit and crochet. We knew that we needed really soft yarn and we found the Lion Brand yard at the Hobby Lobby store. Others at the center asked what we were doing. They wanted to join our little group. Two weeks later we had 30 hats. We brought them to the McKinney Cancer Center in McKinney TX. They were thrilled to see the different colors and patterns of the caps. There wasn't anyone in the reception area when four of us brought the caps there. Two women came in and had their caps on. When we showed them the caps we brought, they were really excited about them and each picked a cap out. They replaced their caps with the new ones. It was so nice to see the smiles on their faces. One of the ladies had the same situation with her cancer that Joyce did and Joyce was able to share how well she has done since then. The pictures we took showed the smiles on, we who could give and those that benefited from our caps. We are going to continue to make the caps and bring them to the cancer center. We were so humbled by the experience and found something that we can do for others to make their day a little brighter. One never knows when she may be in the same situation.

Spring Caps

Now that spring and summer are approaching, our knitters and crocheters are making light, soft (as usual) and springy caps. And we're even making flowers to put on the caps. Hmmm, maybe Mary can make butterflies too! Do you remember when all the ladies wore fashionable hats? Now our 'cappers' can wear beautiful caps for Easter or for just strutting their stuff in their spring caps. Here is a picture of a few of our completed spring caps.

Joyce

Joyce is feeling pretty perky lately. We tease her and tell her that she's getting bossy. We love it though because it shows that she's able to take a more active part in our project. She's going to be our PR person for sending out cards, printing and mailings. Oh, and she's trying to learn how to crochet!! Now that's really an accomplishement!!

Another interview

We were interviewed by Nancy Pacheco yesterday. She is the editor of some of the communitie newspapers in and around Allen. It was a good interview and we should expect to see articles in the April editions. We think that this will generate an interest by knitters and crocheters, expecially some of the elderly ladies living in senior communities that know how to knit but don't really have much to knit. The caps don't take long and they should enjoy completing something that can be used by chemo patients, giving of themselves even in their late years.

Letter from the Office of Robin Roberts of WFAA

We sent some caps to Robin Roberts, the news commentator on WFAA who was diagnosed with cancer and has been undergoing chemotherapy. Following is a letter of thanks that we received from her office:

Hello!Robin wishes that she was able to thank everyone personally. Robin has received the wonderful chemo caps along the letter that you sent and they have truly lifted her spirits. She would like to thank you for thinking of her during this time and wants you to know that you too are in her thoughts and prayers. Robin appreciates you support, encouragement and thoughtfulness.Thank you very much.Sincerely, Sonny Mullen

Patterns for knitted caps

Chemo Cap Knit Pattern
Pattern for Knit Chemo CapKnitted on Straight Needles Size #11 (8mm)Yarn: Use Yarn Bee (Airy) Takes approximately 50 yards.Gauge: 10 stitches = 4 ½ inchesGarter stitch – knit every rowK2tog – knit 2 stitches togetherInstructions:Cast on 40 sts on #11(8mm) needles.Bottom of hat should measure 18 ½ inches.Work in Garter Stitch for 5 1/2 inches. Row 1 *K8, K2tog* across row (36 sts)Row 2 Knit 1 rowRow 3 *K7, K2tog* across row (32sts)Row 4 Knit 1 rowRow 5 *K6, K2tog* across row (28 sts)Row 6 Knit 1 rowRow 7 *K5, K2tog* across row (24 sts)Row 8 Knit 1 rowRow 9 *K4, K2tog* across row (20 sts)Row 10 Knit 1 rowRow 11 *K3, K2tog* across row (16 sts)Row 12 Knit 1 rowRow 13 *K2, K2tog* across row (8 sts)Row 14 Knit 1 rowCut yarn leaving 20 inch tail. Run through remainingSts Making a circle and sew up seam. Weave in ends.

Crochet caps pattern

Joyce's Chemo Cap Project Directions for Crochet Pattern 11. ch 3, join with sl stitch to form ring. Ch1,6 sc in ring,(do not join.)place marker in last sc of each round.2. 2 sc in each sc. (12 sc)3. (1 sc in next sc, 2 sc in next sc) around.4. (1 sc in each of next 2 sc, 2 sc n next sc)around.(24 sc)5. (2 sc in next sc, 1 sc in each of next 3 sc) around.6. (1 sc in each of next 4 sc, 2 sc in next sc) around. (35 sc)7. (2 sc in next sc, 1 sc in each of next 5 sc) around. (42sc)(You can place the marker at the end of this row and keep it there until you do a few more rows. That way, if the hat is too tight or too loose, you can rip back to the marker and either add or subtract stitches from round 8 to adjust the size of the hat.)8. 1(1 sc in each of next 6 sc, 2 sc in next sc) around. (48 sc)9. (2 sc iin next sc, 1 sc in each of next 7 s) around. (54 sc)((If necessary to make the crown wide enough: (1 sc in each of the next 8 sc, 2 sc in next sc) around))10. Sl stitch into next sc, ch 1, sc in each stitch around, join with sl st to ch 1.11-23. Ch 1, sc in each sc around, join with sl st to ch1. (Try on your hat now and see if it's long enough for you. Add a row or two if it isn't long enough. Or take a row off it it's too long.)24. Ch 1, )1 sc in each of the next 8sc, 2 sc in next sc) around. Join with a sl st to ch 1. ((If you added a row after row 9, then so this instead: (2 sc in next sc, 1 sc in each of next 9 sc) around. Join with sl st to ch1.))24-27. Ch 1, sc in each sc around. Join with sl st to ch 1. Fasten off. (These last 4 rounds should curl up to make the Brim.

Joyce's Son Comments On the Cap's

Joyce's Chemo Cap Project

Letter sent to the Mayor of Allen, Texas
With all of the people you meet everyday you may or not remember me as a volunteer the past two years on the advisory board with Allen Animal Control, which by the way is a pleasure to do.

I wanted to let you know about a project that a group of Allen Senior Citizen members have been doing over the past six months, started because of my mother Joyce Schmitt. My mother who has gone to the center since it's opening was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer and stage 3 lung cancer in April 2006. After spending several months searching for the right oncologists, getting second and third opinions, she started chemo this fall.
As I'm sure you are aware most Chemo patients loose their hair and because of additional treatments and a second round of chemo that she just completed Mom has not had hair for sometime.
The project I am speaking about of is called "Joyce's Chemo Cap's". a group of Mom's friend's at the center heard her complain about the caps bothering her at night when she slept and her head would get cold.. Out of that comment while having coffee at the center six months ago began a group of members that crochet or knit and have given away more than 1,500 caps to cancer patients, They have helped start groups in six other states. These caps which are by the way beautiful, are donated to hospitals and cancer centers in Collin County.

Friend inspires Cap Creation

Joyce's Chemo Cap Project

From an article in Neighborsgo section Dallas Morning News December 15, 2007
After finding out that their friend Joyce Schmitt was diagnosed with cancer, friends Jan Goble, Vivian Denbow and Lena Louter of Allen started the Chemo Cap Project. Joyce had mentioned to her friends that the caps she had to sleep in hurt her head. because of the seams. So, Jan, Vivian and Lena started looking for patterns on the Internet for Chemo Caps. The patterns they found suggested using yarns that were soft to the touch. Jan and Vivian bought yarn and started making Caps. They then asked Joyce to approve the yarn and make sure it was soft.

On August 2, 3007 the friends started making caps at the Allen Senior Center. Several others at the center joined the project. Because many of the women can crochet and knit, they gathered patterns.

Some members such as Lena focus mainly on making children's Chemo Caps. Lena has made more than 100 children's cap and sent them to the Scottish Rite Hospital and St. Jude''s Children's Hospital.

Since the group started, they have grown to more than 20 women who knit and crochet caps. Because members have shared news about the project with family and friends, the idea has spread and groups have formed in Florida, Georgia and Virginia.

They also are now working with the McKinney Cancer Center and the Plano Cancer Center to distribute adult caps. The only stipulation members had was that the caps be given to patients who could use them at no cost.

The group has recently renamed the Chemo Cap Project as "Joyce's Chemo Cap Project".

Without Joyce's friendship and understanding about the need for comfortable caps, her friends would not have known there was such a need. Because of all of the support received members are glad to donate the "caps" .

Seniors Create Caps for Cancer Patients

Joyce's Chemo Cap Project

Article appeared in the Dallas Morning News section Neighborsgo August 2007

Allen Senior Recreaion Center members Vivian Denbow, Jan Goble and Lena Louter recently became invovled with Chemo Caps, a group that donates their time by making caps for cancer patients.

They created the group after a mutual friend of theirs, Joyce Schmitt, was diagonsed with cancer. She remarked that the hats she had to sleep in hurt her head because of the seams. After hearing this Vivian searched the Internet for a pattern to make a more comfortable fitting cap. The site visited suggested using yarns that were soft to the touch. So Jan and Vivian went shopping for yarn and started knitting. Joyce having the final approval on whether the caps were soft enough.

Others at the center who were not able to knit or crochet began donating money or yarn for the project.

In August the group donated 30 Chemo Caps to the McKinney Cancer Center. It was a humbling experience. We met two cancer patients and they were so happe to see and feel the caps that both ladies immediately took off the hats that they had on and put on our Chemo Caps'

Joyce's Chemo Cap Project

The Chemo Cap Project was started by Jan Goble, Lena Louter and Vivian Denbow after a mutual friend Joyce Schmitt was diagnosed with cancer. Joyce said that the caps she had to sleep in hurt he head because of the seams. We found patterns on the Internet for Chemo Caps. The patterns suggested using yarns that were soft to the touch. Jan and I bought yarn and started making the caps. We asked Joyce to "approve the yarn" to make sure it was soft. We started knitting the caps at the Allen Senior Recreation Center on August 1, 2007. Several of our friends at the center have joined us in making the Chemo Caps. Since many of the women can crochet and knit we have patterns for both types of caps. The caps are great for sleeping or being out on the town. Our Allen group had grown and now we have over twenty women knitting and crocheting the Chemo Caps. Our project has been shared with family and friends and spread to Dallas, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Pennslyvania, Iowa and Virginia.
Some of the senior who can not make the caps have either donated money or yarn to the project.
We found several cancer centers in Collin County that wanted the caps. We are currently working with the McKinney Cancer Center and Plano Cancer Center to distribute adult caps. Our only stipulation was that the caps be given to patients that could use the caps at no cost. Lena's main focus had been on childresn's Chemo Caps. Lena has made over 100 plus children's caps and has sent them to St Jude's Children's Hospital and the Scottish Rite Hospital in Dallas.
In October we proudly renamed our Chemo Cap Project "Joyce's Chemo Caps" because without her friendshp and understanding of the great need for Chemo Caps we would not have know there was a need.
With your support over 1,500 "Joyce's Chemo Caps" have been made and distributed to cancer facilities in Collin County, and across the United States. Since the need is so great we are currently looking at additional facilities where we can distribute our caps.
If you know anyone who would like to join our group and make Chemo Caps, please contact Jan or Vivian. also if you know of a person in need of a Chemo Cap, they may contact either one of the Cancer Centers that have been mentioned.
Thank you all so much for your continued support. Each and evey one of you had made a difference in someone's life for your committment to this project