Volunteers working in Indianapolis, the chosen city to host the 2012 Superbowl game, are much more prepared to deal with the season’s harsh weather this winter, thanks in large part to volunteers knitting scarves for those in the city.
In a heartwarming gesture of unification, almost 13,000 scarves have been knitted for the Superbowl workers by hands that span age, gender, and nationality. The chosen color for each one of these scarves? Blue and white, which are, coincidentally, the colors for both teams pitted against each other this year.
Each scarf is six feet long. The Superbowl organizers originally wanted 8,000 scarves – one for each volunteer. They ended up getting almost double that amount, sent from 45 states, plus more shipped in from overseas. Belgium, Canada, The United Kingdom, and South Africa were among those countries represented in donations, and the feedback has been heartwarming.
The organization behind the Super Scarves program is simple-gift a scarf that a volunteer hand-knits, then ships, to the Indianapolis stadium. The purpose is to keep workers warm, and identify a Superbowl organizer from a fan.
Each scarf also has a hand-sewn volunteer patch on the end, and the patches are put onto the scarves by inmates from the Indiana Women’s Prison.
One lady made more scarves than any other volunteer, and that woman is 82 year old Bev Meska from Michigan City, Indiana. She made 250 by the November deadline last year and was among the three thousand in total who individually donated scarves for the Superbowl workers.
The concept for the Super Scarves program isn’t a new idea-the thought behind gifting scarves to event workers in harsh climes comes from the Special Olympics a few years ago. The thought caught on, and has obviously reached a fever pitch for the Superbowl commencing on February 5th.
It is hoped that the city will continue in the vein of gifting and donating, in that the influx of extra scarves will be handed out to cold fans and the needy around Indianapolis.
Sources:
www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/23/effort-outfits-super-bowl_n_1224290.html