We, at Carlton House, know we have some of the best staff around, and we couldn’t be happier to have Diane on our team. Diane organizes our residents knitting group as well as a few other fun group activities including jumbo Crosswords and News and Views. When the pandemic forced restrictions on family and friends visiting and helping residents with tasks and errands, Diane immediately stepped up to help.
Diane started Helping Hands, a twice weekly opportunity for residents to sign up for her assistance in completing tasks, running errands, or even just for a bit of company. Diane is available for all of “the little extras” as she puts it, “it could be anything, even going for a walk!”.
Diane has been bringing people together for her whole life, with an extensive background in community initiatives and volunteer work. “My passion is in hobbies. I’m not proficient in any of them, but I’ve done them all!”.
One of the highlights of Diane’s job is the knitting group. Diane loves to see the group members learn something new or fine-tune their skills, all while working their hands to be stronger. Together, the group has knit several beautiful keepsake items for themselves as well as items for donation to Our Place and other local charities. Donations include fingerless gloves, headbands, scarfs, blankets and baby bonnets. As Diane says, “Giving back is good for the soul”.
The group has grown tremendously since Diane has started leading it. She said that “it snowballs, the more and more people we get, the more interesting the group becomes” and “everyone comes with a different skill set”.
In 2020 so far, including missing a few months during the beginning of COVID, the knitting group has made:
- 50 scarves
- 72 ear warmers
- 56 fingerless gloves
- 13 baby bonnets
- 15 purple baby bonnets to raise awareness of Shaken Baby Syndrome
- 6 child size ear warmers
- 2 crocheted blankets
- And more!
