No one is absolutely sure how long the group has been running but the Temora Library Knitting Group is believed to have been going for more than ten years. There are 15 regulars that meet on the first and third Thursday of each month from 2pm for two hours. The knitting sessions are not only a great way for members to socialise, catch up and share a common interest but they spend the time knitting to put back into the community by making blankets, trauma teddies and chickens to be sold or donated. Many blankets have been provided to an organisation that coordinates the knitted pieces finding their way to places like Sudan, Somalia, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. Although most of the kitted items are donated some are sold to buy materials to keep the work going, they recently had a large donation of wool so decided to donate the money that was sitting there to Temora Can Assist. The $500 donation was presented to Lynn Hegarty, president of Temora Can Assist and vice president Karen Baldwin last Thursday 16 July. Knitting group member Helena Reinhold said that she loves it as she gets to meet a different group of people to socialise with. Ms Haggerty said that the donation was very much appreciated. “We welcome any donation that we get, and we appreciate our community so much because with them and our members that's the backbone of CanAssist,” Ms Haggerty said. “It's great that we have such a thoughtful community to keep funding us. “We do activities ourselves but not quite as much as what we might have done in our younger years.” Since January Temora Can Assist has acquired 26 new clients and still has one or two left on the books from last year. “We help in a number of ways, which can be fuel vouchers, accommodation expenses, medical and pharmaceutical expenses as well as extra different things people might need,” Ms Haggerty added. “Not everybody needs the same type of assistance and that's why Can Assist is so good because being a local group we can sometimes cater for individual clients whereas if you're going through government agencies, they have set regulations that they can't perhaps help out in certain areas that we might be able to help out in. “We can't say we always help out, well we can always help out but if we can we will.”
