Afghan square making... from jail

I've been organizing a Warm Up America! afghan project with  my kids 4H club for several years and every year opening each package of donated squares is a little like Christmas for me. I never know what colors, textures, stitches and designs will come from each square maker.

This year there are some great squares (with more still coming in). The yarn Uschi made her squares with is soft and cuddly. My girls loved them.

The girls' grandma made a ton of colorful granny squares with some fun variegated yarn. 

And the Korner Knitters in Standish always do a fab job making squares for us too. I can always depend on their squares to be precisely the size requested with beautiful stitching.

Last year was the first year I made a connection with the Cumberland County Jail's education coordinator, Hope. She encouraged the inmates she works with to crochet (knitting needles aren't permitted in the jail) squares for our project last year. They turned over a bunch of hand-made squares. It was a win-win for both groups working within their own abilities to give back to their local community.

Having seen what the kids did with their squares (Hope shared a picture the 4H club sent after the afghans were assembled), the inmates were inspired to make even more squares this year.

They crocheted 201 squares and put a lot of extra effort in to making each one fun and interesting. My kids sifted through the two large shopping bags from the jail yesterday and were "oooohing" and "aaaahhhhing" as they scattered them across my daughter's bed.

"Mom! Look at these squares. They are wicked cute!" exclaimed my 14-year-old.

She especially liked the one with the butterfly on the flower.

Then these squares were pulled out of the bag.

We all paused to take in the multi-layered meaning of these special squares - for the inmate who made them to the family shelter and food pantry who will receive the final afghans.

I will never meet these inmates.

I will never know what crimes any of these women committed that led to their incarceration (the Cumberland County Jail facility houses minimum, medium and maximum classifications of inmates).

But if these women have the compassion and thoughtfulness to make these extra special squares for the 4H kids' project, I have faith.

I have faith that when each of these square-making women is released from jail, she will make better life decisions. That she will pursue her dreams without breaking the law again.

You can call me naive if you like. You might be right.

But these women had a choice to make a couple of squares this year and call it good. 

They didn't.

They chose to go that extra mile to help a group of kids they never met make their project extra special.

They chose to make a contribution to the afghans for the family shelter in whatever way was available to them. 

So yes, I choose to have faith that given the next choice these women will choose to take a better path when they are released from jail.

I also have faith in the law enforcement officers at the Cumberland County Jail.

Faith in officers like Hope who work with these inmates every day to offer educational opportunities that give them opportunities to make positive life decisions. To help inmates make a conscious choice to give rather than to take.

Yes, these inmates have a debt to pay to society for their poor decisions. Yet every single person in our community can choose to have faith that an incarcerated individual can find a way to turn their life around when they are released.

So I choose to have some faith in these women. I have faith the officers' work will pay off for everyone in the larger community in the long run.

Hope, you and the inmates at the Cumberland County Jail ROCK!