Knit for Good binds volunteers, patients at OU Children’s Hospital
Journal Record
August 18, 2023

Written by Heide Brandes

Sometimes, a chance encounter can change a life.

For Oklahoma City’s Debbie Trachtenberg, co-founder of the new Oklahoma nonprofit Knit for Good, a chance encounter during the COVID-19 pandemic brought her to a new hobby she had never considered and launched a new nonprofit that is now booming.

Already a volunteer at OU Children’s Hospital, Trachtenberg and her therapy dog, Archie, visited with kids and employees at the hospital to spread a little joy. One day in September 2021, she met a mother who was quietly knitting while her son recovered from surgery.

“The mom asked me to come back at the end of my day because she wanted to talk to me about something,” Trachtenberg said. “When I returned hours later, she told me how she’d met a woman on a train who was knitting hats for babies in the NICU and was looking for someone to pass it on to, and that’s how she began.”

That woman was looking for someone to pass the mission on to, and she chose Trachtenberg, who had no idea how to knit. While Trachtenberg took on the new skill as a solo project, she soon had a small army of friends who wanted to join her. As more and more of her friends learned about the project, the army of knitters grew and Knit for Good, which operates under the Children’s Hospital’s 501(c)(3) umbrella, was created.

“This group now includes over 80 members, and we donated 1,285 hats last year and hope to donate even more in 2023,” Trachtenberg said. “We also spend time teaching patients and their families how to knit during their hospital stays.”

The start of something new

Knitting doesn’t just help volunteers fulfill a need and a desire to help. According to research released by UCLA, studies show that knitting can help decrease anxiety, depression and eating disorders and help with pain management. Additionally, a neuropsychiatrist at the Mayo Clinic released a study that showed knitting could reduce dementia by as much as 50%.

“Many people in our group have shared how much this group has helped them personally for a variety of reasons,” Trachtenberg said. “Lowering anxiety has been a huge one. After the isolation of COVID, this group had really become such a combo of giving back to our community in a very passionate way while getting more out of it ourselves than any of us ever imagined.”

Knit for Good is a social, volunteer-led nonprofit, and so far, volunteer engagement has allowed the organization to be self-funded. While the group started as a way for volunteers to give back, it has morphed into a sort of support group for both patients and knitters. For now, the organization focuses only on creating knitted hats for kids and families at OU Children’s Hospital in order to remain manageable and effective.

“It’s OK to be a small, focused organization and work within the parameters of a very targeted mission,” Trachtenberg said. “You can’t be everything to everyone, so set realistic limits for your outreach so you can meet and exceed your goals.”

If you’d like to learn more about Knit For Good, please email KnitForGood@gmail.com.