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Carol DeVito doesn't like to sew for herself but clearly she has no problem doing so for other people. Her impeccable handiwork includes hand-sewn teddy bears, Christmas stockings and pillows. And countless recipients, former patients who bring them home from the hospital, hold them dear.
Carol is a lifelong resident of Norwalk who has volunteered at Norwalk Hospital for more than 30 years. But she still has time to look after any of her three grandchildren, ranging in age from 20 months to 11 years, and to oversee a small home-based tailoring business as well. "I've always volunteered in some form or another," she says. "From when my children were growing up and I worked on the PTA to helping out in the hospital coffee shop, it's just always something I've enjoyed."
Carol and her friend and fellow volunteer Margaret Karl, also a "Norwalk lifer," as Carol puts it, are participants in the Designs for Recovery group at the hospital. They meet regularly to create handmade items for patients. "We sew teddy bears for the kids in pediatrics and for surgical patients we make 'comfort pillows.' But we also help out volunteers -- mostly men who don't sew -- by sewing emblems onto their uniforms. We do what we're good at in order to help out," she says.
Carol adds: "In the old days when hospital stays were a lot longer, we used to make sewing kits to give to patients so that they could make fun little projects in order to pass the time away. Now they're usually there for such a short time that we make the items ourselves." And they do so prolifically: on a given week these two thimble-free, nimble-fingered women will create 25 bears, stockings or pillows. Not to mention the merchandise they generate for the annual late-fall holiday craft fair.
Does she ever get tired of sewing? Though she admits her fingers sometimes get a little stiff, she is always happy to "bring some joy" into someone's life. Carol's volunteering is truly a priceless commodity.
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