Knitting for a cause: Carolina Bay’s dedication to supporting NICU babies

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Members of the Carolina Bay Knitting Club are keeping busy.

Every week since the start of March, they gather to knit hats for babies at the NICU at New Hanover Regional Medical Center. The daughter of one of the club’s members works in the NICU there.

Around 50 hats are made and donated each week and nearly 750 hats have been donated since they started.

In addition, one club member was knitting up a storm on her own, working on a special project for the holidays.

Beth Henderson just finished making 150 Christmas hats, having started working on the project back in June.

She said this allows the club to show its support to the local community.

‘And so it ends up being a lot of fun,” Henderson said. “This is a way for us to give back to the community and I think Carolina Bay enjoys the fact we have so many people here that are willing to do that.”

Karen Wilkins is the club’s founder and said the club’s goal isn’t just to make hats but to try and get other people involved as well.

“We’re hoping that we can challenge other communities like ours to maybe start a knitting club and make more baby hats because we don’t make enough,” Wilkins said. “They have at least 50 babies a week born and sometimes they run out of hats and I’m sure that they would appreciate other groups like ours contributing hats to the hospital.”

In addition, the club recently began making hats for cancer patients at New Hanover Regional.