THE BLANKET being created by the community to show its support for the staff at SWAH is continuing to take shape, with its stitchers pouring their hearts into the project.
In recent weeks volunteers from Save Our Acute Services (SOAS) and members of local community have been knitting and crocheting six inch squares that will be used to create a blanket that will be presented to staff of the hospital.
The idea is to show how the community wants to support and protect the hard working frontline staff of the hospital.
As part of the project SOAS has been holding ‘knit and natter’ meet ups in Lisnaskea and Enniskillen.
SOAS member Tina McDermott has been hard at work on the blanket. She said they have had an overwhelmingly positive response to the project, with many in the community offering to contribute squares, and many lovely stories emerging from those taking part in the knit-and-natter events.
“People have asked, how will this save our hospital,” she said. “We have answered – promoting the cause, publicity for the cause and participation by people who maybe have no other way to get involved in the cause.”
Tina, who was among those at the knit-and-natter event at the Knocks School last Saturday, said one Polish woman who came along lost her mum during Covid. Her mum had been knitting four inch squares for her own blanket before she passed, and these are now being reworked to be included in the SWAH blanket.
“Another lady hadn’t been able to take up her needles since her dad passed because it reminded her of a sad time,” said Tina. “When she saw the call for the squares she knew it was the best reason ever to lift her needles again.”
Tina had her own personal story, “I myself am using wool my mum gave me in the weeks before her death less than a year ago. So my mum will be with me in this blanket.”
Another woman who attended an event in Enniskillen had a similar story, telling SOAS she believed her mother would have approved of her knitted blanket being used to support SWAH staff.
Tina added, “This blanket will be a mural of stories spanning generations, religions and nations because we believe in our hospital. We know our emergency services must be returned ASAP, for the survival of SWAH and its staff, and the survival of the community.”
More knit-and-natter events are being held this Saturday, at the Knocks on Saturday from 11am-2pm, and at Ewe Momma at the Buttermarket in Enniskillen, from 2pm-4pm.
Those wishing to contribute to the blanket can drop their six inch squares into Fermanagh Cottage industries in Enniskillen, Delicate Dental in Lisnaskea, or the Knocks School, before the end of August.
The blanket project is just one of a number of initiatives by SOAS during the summer, with volunteers also spreading the message with their custom selfie-frame at various local events.
Everything is leading up to a family fun day in support of the SWAH in the Broadmeadow area from 2-5pm on September 2nd. Further details on this will follow in the coming weeks.
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