Bellarine knitters called to make Red Cross trauma teddies

BARWON Heads Red Cross Emergency Services volunteer Pam Halnon is calling for knitters to get their needles moving to assist the organisation with delivering trauma teddies to those in flood-ravaged communities.

After recently returning from four days of volunteering in Shepparton and four days of service at the new Quarantine Centre for flood victims in Mickleham, Halnon said she hoped local knitters could get involved with assisting the delivery of the cuddly teddies.

“We’ve probably given out 100 Red Cross trauma teddies to the community up in Shepparton.

“They are mostly for children, just to give them something to cuddle and hold and to give them a bit of security.

“We also find we give them to older people, it’s just something for them to have too.

“They also go into places like ambulances, St Johns and the CFA trucks, just so if they get into an emergency with children they’ve got something to give to them.”

Mrs Halnon said she had a strong presence of local people over the course of the pandemic who used some of their spare time to knit the trauma teddies, but now many were too busy to complete the work.

“Over COVID I put a callout out there and had quite a few people who had nothing to do who did a really big knit for me, then I had a great big bucket of them.

“Over the last 12 months I’ve used all of mine and I wanted to callout to people who were knitters in our local community who would like to knit some more teddies.”

The Barwon Heads resident said that with the flood and emergency crisis, there had never been a better time to get local talent involved.

“I would love those who feel able, to get out their knitting needles again,” she said.

“It’s a great way to use up all those scraps of wool, to build up my supply again.

“The teddies must be inspected and have a Red Cross tag sewn on.

“I will gratefully accept them when completed.”

Mrs Halnon has been a part of the Red Cross team for over ten years and said she absolutely loves volunteering and training to help with any emergency that she is needed for.

She also said that the Red Cross is always after more volunteers and encourage anyone who is interested to get in touch.

To see the two Red Cross trauma teddy designs, head to redcross.org.au/teddy