Ginny Hibbard of Redding founded Chuck’s Hats for Chemo in 2003 in honor of her husband, Chuck, who died of cancer a year earlier. Since then, word of Chuck’s Hats for Chemo has gone around the world, and resulted in thousands and thousands of hats for cancer patients. I recently asked Ginny a few questions about her hat project.
Q: People can learn more about Chuck’s Hats For Chemo , but could you briefly describe your project?
It is a decentralized project. I keep no records of who, what, when, where. I do print out all emails I receive. There are about a dozen binders chock full of sheets of paper. Then, there are the notes and photos of many of the hats made by others, as well as some of my efforts. Any articles that have been written about CH4C are included. Someday, possibly one of my grandchildren or their children may want to read what was said or done in the name of the project.
Someone who crochets and/or knits may use their leftover yarn/scraps to turn it into a creation a cancer patient could use. Or take half a yard of material and make a cloth hat. Take an hour or two out of your daily life to make a person suffering from cancer – add chemo, and sometimes radiation onto that mix – and give them a different view of the world. Let them know someone out there cares about them and is pulling for them to ‘make’ it. And, most important of all: All hats are always FREE to the patient. No cancer patient is charged for one of these hats, ever!
The project is what one individual sitting in their own home is able to do, or groups, who create a mix of people all working together for a common cause. Many people who begin the project will only make a couple of hats, then they stop. So, there is always a need for others to take over that empty spot. Unfortunately, cancer patients are not slowing down, but growing in numbers..
Anyone with yarn may donate their unused yarn. I had one woman from Illinois who emailed me that she had hundreds of skeins of yarn left after her mother died. The daughter wrote asking to donate to someone in her area so they could make hats. I felt with that much donated yarn; it would need a group to take on the project. I took some days and phone calls to near Chicago to an LDS Church’s Relief Society. They agreed to make the hats from the donated yarn. There were close to 1,000 hats donated into the greater Chicago area; and some members continue to contribute hats to that area.
Two other women wrote with donations of yarn from the deceased mothers’ stashes. I managed to find other worker bees with willing hands to make hats from these donations. One woman was from Florida. The other was from New Mexico. There is always a need for donations of yarn. Since I do not accept funds or disburse funds, that is the only way that I able do it when I am notified of a gift. Women may check out yard sales/thrift shops/churches for donations for the project or purchases at nominal prices themselves.
Q: I read that since you started this project, more than 100,000 hats have been knitted for cancer patients. Geographically speaking, how far-reaching has this project been?
100,000 is my best estimate on the hats because I have no way to track 99.9% of the crafters. It only takes 100 people making 1,000 hats to make 100,000. The hats are not just knitted, but also crocheted, and then, too, sewn. I have done all three during the years. If I can make 1,600 hats of all kinds, and many others have made hats into the hundreds and thousands, it doesn’t take many people to hit the 100,000 mark. One group who wrote me was a knitting group. There were 40 members within their group (men & women). Imagine how many hats they may have made: 40 people times 10 hats is 400. But just imagine what 40 people times 100 hats is: 4,000!
Hats made by The Hat Ladies in Corona, CA founded by Susan Brunner. The Hat Ladies made and donated over 10,000 hats as of 2012. They have added shawls and quilts to their gifts for the patients.
I know people are making hats in Australia, Great Britain, Europe, Canada, and of course, the USA. One email I received did come from Thailand. Seldom over the years has anyone told me where his or her general location was, let alone their names. They just wanted to make hats. I’m for that!
Q: Has the administration of this project left you any time for hat-making?
The worst time for me was in about the first six months after the small blurb came out in Family Circle Magazine’s January 2004 issue. I was so inundated with email requests that I worked sometimes at the computer for 10 hour or more a day. But, for every request, it meant a hat was going to be made, so that made every minute worthwhile.
With the new website up and running, I hope that will bring in more people to the project, whether they used the Chuck’s Hats For Chemo banner or not. The hats are what’s important. Because the patterns, distribution information, etc. are all contained therein, I will not have as much hands-on as before. That means I can spread myself between CH4C, the United Methodist Women (they don’t mind that I’m a Catholic), and Alyssa’s Wings of Angels.
If I don’t get the house cleaned as well as a hospital, well, that is OK, just as long as hats, quilts and other things are made for ones who need them. I try to keep a bag with yarn, crochet hook, etc., in the car. If I have to go somewhere that I find myself having to sit for any length of time, I work on hats. There is always a way to continue something so worthwhile.
Q: What’s been the most surprising thing you’ve learned since you started this project?
Maybe it is all the times I have been an UA (unofficially adopted) mom to cancer patients or to their families. Some just need a person to communicate with through their trials.
I have learned fairly well the signs of good progress and not. Some of the women who have cancer will write for a time; then they just stop writing. I know then that they have walked the Rainbow Bridge.
Then others complete their chemo, go into remission, and go on with their lives.
There are those, whom, for the most part, I seldom hear from after a year or so. Then, there are a few with whom I have been corresponding for years. We have become friends. One lovely lady from Canada flew into Redding, so she could spend 24 hours with me at my home. There are others who make hats; yet, they too, just need the communication. Sometimes it is loneliness from losing a loved one to cancer, and knowing I have, also. Other times they are just lovely people who we have found something in common with me. I’ve picked up a UA daughter from Pennsylvania, who has come to Redding for a visit with me.
One couple flew into Redding last summer for lunch with me at the Redding airport. The friendships that have continued are wonderful, always interesting, very special, and never dull. Life is what you put into it.
Q: Anything else you’d like us to know?
From the very beginning, when I heard Chuck’s voice come to me that night I was working on a hat, and all the subsequent things, such as Family Circle and other publicity, this Chuck’s Hats For Chemo has never been ‘my’ project, but the Lord’s. Only He could have taken something so small as a hat for one person to what this has become.
I feel I am just the person one physically sees or hears. It has been a marvelous journey. I have been blessed by so much, especially the generosity of people who have made hats for chemo patients.
Chuck used to say I was a pessimist, although I called myself a realist. I just know there must be more people out in the world who care about someone else’s problem, no matter how big or small. Making a difference is very rewarding. Maybe Chuck would now say I am an optimist. A little free hat is a very small item, but cancer is a very big thing!
Editor’s note: This a best-of column that was originally published January 5, 2009.
Ginny Hibbard started Chuck’s Hats for Chemo in 2003 after her husband died from cancer. Crafters make and donate hats for their own communities’ cancer patients all over the world.
