Saugus group knitting for a cause

SAUGUS – The laughs coming from the function room at the Saugus Senior Center Tuesday afternoon could be heard down the hall. Once inside, it?s easy to see why.Around 30 seniors sat around a giant table with a red, white and blue table cloth, talking, laughing, joking and most importantly, knitting.Barbara Galvin started the knitting circle after the Sept. 11 attacks to send hats and slippers to soldiers oversees. On Tuesday, they celebrated 10 years of knitting.Click here to view a photo gallery of the Saugus Knitting Club?They have arthritis in their little hands but they?ve been knitting like crazy,” said Galvin. “I had to do something when 9-11 happened. So I decided to come up here to see the ladies in February of 2002. We started with four people and now we have 54.”The group meets every Tuesday at noon to knit hats and slippers for the troops and in the spring they knit cool ties, which keep soldiers? necks cool in the heat.The seniors celebrated Tuesday with an American flag cake, red, white and blue balloons and, of course, more knitting.Galvin said the hats and socks are shipped out every month and, after 10 years, she said more than 35,000 items have been sent overseas.?It?s really taken off,” said Galvin. “They sit here and laugh and tell stories. Psychologically it?s a wonderful thing for them. It gets them out of the house and it?s better than Prozac.”Galvin had a stack of “thank you” emails from soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan Tuesday, and even had photos with her. One showed close to 30 soldiers in their uniforms, all wearing the different colored knit hats they had just been sent.?My thing to do was knitting and I couldn?t think of a better thing to do,” said Galvin. “I had son-in-laws and a husband that were in the service and I knitted back in the second world war and I knew how much they appreciated it. This is a hug from home.”Pauline Stewart just joined last month and said she loves the fact that she can practice her hobby while helping out the troops.?People have asked me to come so I finally came down,” said Stewart. “I?ve been knitting for years and years. I think it?s a wonderful thing.”Barbara Owram has been in the group for a year and also joined at the behest of her friends.?I think it?s important,” said Owram. “You know that they?re getting them and the letters that they send are so nice. They?re very appreciative, more so than your own family ? they?re so used to getting hats ? how many hats can people you know need?”Owram said she sticks to knitting the hats instead of the socks because it lets her “talk at the same time.”?You have to remember every row with the socks,” said Owram. “With the hats it?s all by the inch. Hats are simpler and I think they work up fast.”Ruth Cameron has been knitting with the group for several years, and said she enjoys giving back to the troops and to her friends at the Senior Center.?A lot of people want to learn to knit, so that?s the most rewarding part for me, to teach people to knit,” said Cameron, who has been knitting for more than 60 years. “One lady didn?t know how to knit at all and now she?s knitting on round needles, double-pointed needles, and she?s having a grand time. They?re not just knitting. They?re not just sitting there making something. They?re actually making something that?s going toward something very nice.”Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].