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With nearly 600 dishcloths, it's time to put away knitting needles
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Donate to Christmas Stocking Fund



The Christmas Stocking Fund is a massive effort, one requiring a multitude of volunteers who shop for children, bake cookies, pack and deliver food boxes. The effort also needs donations in order to provide help to children and families in need. To donate to the Christmas Stocking Fund, send contributions to 901 16th Ave., Monroe, WI 53566. A pre-addressed envelope is included inside today's print edition of the Times.

MONROE - With more than 580 dishcloths completed, knitters meeting for the past year at Perk's Coffee Cafe in Monroe have put down their needles.

"We're done," said Carol Hasse, Juda, with a sigh of relief.

Fellow knitters call Hasse the "instigator" of the project that will add handmade dishcloths to the 500 food boxes for 315 families that will be distributed this month by the Monroe Woman's Club through its Christmas Stocking Fund.

Since February, about 16 people have been contributing to a growing pile of knitted dishcloths.

A couple hundred of the colorful dishcloths are on display at Perk's, 104 West 8th St., until Dec. 16, when they will be taken down in preparation for packing in the food boxes Dec. 22. Each cloth has been pre-washed and is tagged with a number.

"It was the only way I could keep track of how many we had," said Audrey Hein of Monroe, one of the knitters.

The group surpassed its goal of 500 dishcloths, and Hein expects some knitters still have a few more dishcloths to add to the count.

Hasse said they kept knitting, as long as they had the time and the yarn to do so.

"We figured there might be a few more (needy families) this year," she said.

Several of the knitters met weekly for coffee, conversation and knitting at the coffee shop. From time to time, guest knitters, some visiting Monroe from as far away as Washington and Minnesota, dropped by to help. But members of the core group and other knitters living across Green County also worked at home - and just about any place else they found themselves with a few extra minutes.

Hasse and Hein said the group will not be attempting the same feat next year. Their personal and family knitting projects that didn't get done this year are beckoning to be finished.

For its annual Christmas Stocking Fund, the Monroe Woman's Club collects money and other donations, and distributes clothes, toys, shoes and boots to children in need in the Monroe school district. Families also receive food boxes, complete with ingredients to prepare a holiday meal, that are delivered right before Christmas. Cheer boxes with holiday cookies and fruit also are delivered to the elderly. This year the club will also distribute 750 coupons valued at $20 each for children's boots and shoes, and 245 volunteer shoppers have purchased gifts for children of families in need, according to Sue Barrett, publicity chairman for The Monroe Woman's Club.

Names of families in need are offered confidentially by school officials, counselors and area churches.