Navajo Nation Schools
Back in 1994, Barbara Askren was President of the Old Pueblo Knitters’ (OPK) Guild, and Helga Tirrell was Vice President. One day, they were discussing with one another the community projects they were involved in and had an idea – since OPK is an Arizona guild, along with its existing projects, wouldn’t it be great to have a truly Arizona project? Helga had a contact on the Navajo Reservation in northern Arizona, and contacted them to see if there was anything OPK could do to serve their community. The reply was that sweaters for children were very much in need and would be gratefully received, especially near the Christmas holiday.
Barbara and Helga presented the idea of the Guild knitting sweaters for the Navajo Nation to the OPK membership, who was enthusiastically supportive. It was decided that Guild members would begin making sweaters, mostly in smaller sizes, for the pre-school and Head Start programs. Barbara and Helga began assembling kits for members to use, which consisted of a simple pattern and the yarn to make it. However, it quickly became clear that people preferred to be creative and use their own patterns and yarn, or use yarn that was donated to the Guild.
OPK members knit children’s clothing items for the Navajo Nation. In addition to sweaters, hats, mittens, and scarves are very popular and in-demand items. Each Fall, the OPK Navajo Project Chair and/or other members deliver these knitted items to serve children in need.
In the Fall of 1995, OPK member, Pete Clark, offered to deliver the first set of sweaters since she and her husband regularly went through Northern Arizona on their way to the Navajo rug auction in Ship Rock. Pete and her husband continued to deliver sweaters to the Reservation every year until they moved to California in 2003.
One year, they delivered so many sweaters that the Head Start program could not accommodate them all. So, Pete decided to take the extra sweaters to the Navajo Boarding School nearby at Rocky Ridge. The school was delighted to have them! However, since the boarding school serves children from kindergarten through 8th grade, Pete asked Guild members to start knitting some sweaters in larger sizes as well. In Fall 2004, Barbara and Helga began making the annual trip to the Reservation, and in 2005, they delivered 87 sweaters, 175 hats, 138 pairs of mittens, 198 scarves, 4 knitted toy animals, and 5 pairs of socks! 