Teen shares warmth with patients
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on December 23, 2013 1:46 PM
News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Angel Henn, 17, selects one of her blankets for a resident at Kitty Askins Hospice Center. She said she learned how to crochet from her grandmother.
Angel Henn took up crocheting around age 12, taught by her grandmother.
The hobby later afforded her opportunities to create unique handmade gifts for friends and family, she said.
Now a senior at Rosewood High School, the 17-year-old said she decided to incorporate her interest into her graduation project -- making blankets for every patient at Kitty Askins Hospice Center.
"My grandmother was admitted to Kitty and they took really good care of her," Angel said.
Though that was several years ago now, she said it made an impression and motivated her to use the handiwork for others.
She usually crochets every day, she says, and for the bulk of the past two years has been working on the project that culminated this holiday season.
"I had 50 afghans," she said. "Since there's only 25 patients at Kitty Askins, I decided to donate them to their sister center, Crystal Coast (in New Bern)."
The effort proved to be rewarding, for her as well as the recipients.
"I really enjoyed going there and seeing the patients," she said.
It was particularly special to be able to visit the center and make the delivery more special. Most of the blankets she presented personally, she said, unless the patient wasn't up to it or preferred not to have visitors.
"There were some people, like they had family there and their whole entire family would come and thank me and I got some cards from some of them," she said. "They also donated money so I would continue to do this."
And while she might have fulfilled the requirements of the school's graduation project, she said she doesn't intend to stop using her hobby to bless others in the future.
"I'm done with that project, but I'm probably going to continue to do stuff like that," she said.
She's also recently been working on expanding her expertise, taking up knitting and attempting to try some new things.
"Right now, I just learned how to make scarves, like knitting scarves," she said.