Knitting Bus

Third Age’s Knitting Bus Project ‘Knitting the Generations Together’ was launched by President Mary McAleese on September 21 at Collins Barracks, Dublin 8.
It will promote contact between the generations through primary school involvement, teach children to knit, and raise awareness of the value of older people in school and local communities. It is also Third Age’s curtain-raiser to EY2012. Next year, 2012, celebrates the European Year for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations.
Third Age is a community organisation which promotes the value of older people through local, regional and national projects. Third Age has over 1,000 volunteers throughout Ireland, older people all, working variously as active listeners on a help line, as tutors to foreign nationals, as peer nutritionists, as advocates for frailer older people, and more.
Knitting is one of the skills which older people have traditionally passed on to younger. Third Age already has an established Trauma Teddy knitting project in which Third Age members in Summerhill, Co Meath teach knitting to children at a local primary school. They knit soft toy teddy bears which are carried by the ambulance service for children going to hospital.
In the Knitting Bus project, primary schools throughout Ireland are invited to knit for Third Age. Schools will have access to the Trauma Teddy stuffed toy pattern, and other knitting patterns specially created by Irish designer Aideen Bodkin. Beginning ideally in the first term in autumn 2011, this will culminate later in the academic year with an exhibition and sale of class work, and other arts and crafts as relevant. (Over 100 schools had already signed up by June 2011, and we expect many more).
In this project we are also inviting older people who have a love of knitting and would like to pass this on to the primary school pupils in their local school to contact us to register their interest. We will make the necessary introductions for you, supply patterns and answer any questions you may have
Third Age has acquired a double decker bus to publicise this project in a unique way. A colourful jumper in rainbow shades has been knitted for the bus by Shuttle Knit, a craft cooperative based in Wicklow Town. The Knitting Bus will visit a number of schools during the academic year to promote the project. Would you like to be a passenger?
We hope that interested class teachers will manage the project with the support of parents, grandparents, and other local knitters of all ages. In addition, we see each school using their own contacts to reach out to older people - through active retirement associations, women’s clubs, Irish Countrywomen’s Associations and others. We will support with promotional literature and information packs.
We look forward to hearing from you whether you are a primary school principal, class teacher, grandparent or knitting mentor. We feel this project which encourages older people passing on skills to school children in an atmosphere of friendly exchange and mutual learning is one for all ages.

For more information, contact project coordinator Andrina Moore at 086 8185618/ amoore@island-capital.com