by Dennis Dalman
news@thenewsleaders.com
Some people can walk and chew gum at the same time, but they’ve got nothing on Paulette Levasseur of Sartell who can crochet and go sightseeing at the same time.
She recalls a trip through the Black Hills of South Dakota, when she crocheted for hours without missing a stitch while looking out the passenger window at the marvelous scenery rolling by. Just recently, she took her crochet materials to a Caribbean cruise so she could work her yarn on the plane flight and on the cruise ship when things got slow.
Levasseur is the founding member of a group of about 16 women, ages 63 well into the 80s, who are dubbed the Sartell Senior Yarn Ladies. Every Thursday, they gather at the Sartell Community Center to either knit or crochet. Knitting is done with two long needles while crocheting is done with just one hooked needle. All of the items the ladies create they donate to people who need them – to clients of Tri-Cap, which is an area action program helping people in financial stress: to veterans, to people who are homeless and to local police so they can give them to people (especially children) traumatized at the scene of accidents or other crises.
The Yarn Ladies group started in early 2018. Since that time, the ladies have created more than 600 hats/caps, scarves and other warm-clothing accoutrements. And that doesn’t count the more than 200 items made by a group of women at Country Manor Apartments in Sartell, a kind of adjunct member group of the Yarn Ladies.
Their work is in hot demand. For example, homeless people often ask Harry Fleegel, “Are you going to get any more hats from those ladies?” Fleegel, 72, of St. Cloud, loves to help out with people who are homeless. He has an “in” with the Yarn Ladies because his sister, Mary Fasen of Sartell, is a member of the group.
Levasseur understands exactly why the items are so much in need. She was appointed to represent Benton County on the Tri-Cap Executive Board (other counties being Stearns and Sherburne).
“The people (helped by Tri-Cap) can pick out their own hats and scarves,” she said. “Most of those people are working hard but are on the financial borderline. They get training, counseling, learn money-management skills. In some cases, that’s all their kids get for Christmas – the hats or scarves we donate.”
Levasseur also understands why homeless people value hats and scarves.
Awareness of the knitted items among the homeless, Levasseur said, spreads by word of mouth. A warm hat is a prized possession to people with almost nothing else to their names, people struggling to stay warm when they find themselves so often outdoors in winter.
Life with Larry
In 1973, when living in New Brighton, Levasseur took a crocheting class, and she has been glad ever since that she did, largely because of her husband, Larry.
Larry worked for an engineering firm as an inspector and project manager, mainly for road projects.
Born as a “preemie” baby, Larry had a long lifetime of health problems, one after another after another, including five strokes, the first of them at age 37, and a bout of lung cancer, to name only some of the problems. At one time, in the hospital, he was diagnosed with 24 various ailments, including Addison’s disease.
Levasseur was later so happy she’d studied physical therapy in college. She also worked at Fairview Hospital in the Twin Cities in the 1960s.
“It all came in handy when Larry was sick,” she sad, “because he had the best nurse – me. I was laid off from my office job in 2003, and that worked out well. Larry had a hearing deficit, comprehension and memory problems so I was glad to be there for him. I was able to work from home as a financial advisor for the teacher’s union, and I still do.”
With countless visits to clinics, to the hospital, to the emergency ward, LeVasseur spent many an anxious hour by her husband’s bedside or in waiting rooms. To bide the time, she would crochet, stitch after stitch after stitch, and sometimes, from his sick bed, Larry would watch, entranced, relaxed by the crochet motions.
Sadly, Larry died in 2015 at age 69. The couple has two children – Nicole, who lives in Crystal; and Lance in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Lance has two children.
“He had nine lives,” Levasseur said. “More than nine lives. People always thought life must have been horrible with all those medical crises. Well, it wasn’t. Life was challenging but not horrible. I learned with every change to adjust to the “new” Larry. At one time, he was a full-blooded, hot-headed Frenchman from Baudette. Later, the strokes mellowed him. He was happy-go-lucky and never complained.”
Yarn donations welcome
After Larry died, Levassuer let go of her knitting – for a time. But then one day she looked in a closet and saw a huge stash of yarn. She decided then and there to use that yarn and so she put a notice in the Sartell Senior Connection’s newsletter about forming a “yarn” group. At first, two or three women were eager to start one, later joined by more than a dozen other members. And they’ve been busy as honey bees ever since, with a constant growing list of clients eager for the caps and scarves. They include Pathways 4 Youth, Catholic Charities, WACOSA and police community-service officers, among others.
These days, Levasseur is not as involved in crocheting as she was just months ago because she is so busy making labels for the items, organizing them by size, packaging them and coordinating with others as to where they will be delivered.
The ladies constantly keep their ears and eyes open for yarn sales, including in cities far and wide. They also seek out people willing to donate yarn.
Yarn, said Levasseur, promotes conversation. At the community center, the women while making stitches also make small talk while sitting in a circle: family stories, travel memories, different kinds of new patterns and stitches. Sometimes there are up to five conversations going on at once among the various members.
Levasseur strongly believes the best volunteerism projects, like Yarn Ladies’ one, are – in essence – selfish.
“By selfish I mean if I don’t get something out of it, I won’t do it,” she said. “Crocheting relaxes me. It’s fun watching others’ joy, all those strangers becoming friends, and hundreds of people out there staying warm in our beautiful hats and scarves. That’s what I get out of it. Now, that’s selfish.”
The Yarn Ladies meet Thursdays from 1-3 p.m. at the Sartell Community Center. Anyone is welcome to join or to stop in just to say hello and watch the ladies working and having fun.
Anyone who would like to donate yarn to the Yarn Ladies should call Levasseur at 320-252-9117 or 320-493-2050. Or email her at paulettelevasseur2@gmail.com
