Woman’s Club member Julie Chadwick knits caps for kids. (Photo by Alice Rennie)

What could homeless military veterans, newborn babies in Bangladesh, and inner-city kids in Boston possibly have in common? As it happens, there are people in each of these far-flung groups who are now sporting warm, hand-knit hats, lovingly made by Harvard women over the last three years. The knitters, all members of the Harvard Woman’s Club, started out knitting afghans for hospitalized veterans at the Bedford V.A. hospital a number of years ago. They have since branched out into making hundreds of warm hats each year for homeless vets, third-world babies, Afghan refugees, and needy kids in Boston.

About six to 12 of these women, who now call themselves the Caps for Kids knitting group, meet monthly at Stella Matson’s home on Withington Lane to knit or crochet and socialize. Last year, the industrious women produced 559 hats, 13 scarves, and 12 pairs of mittens, according to Matson’s records. The bulk of the items went to underprivileged children in Boston, Matson said during an interview at the most recent Caps for Kids meeting on April 17.

Matson had first seen a letter in the Boston Globe several years ago from a woman affiliated with the Caps for Kids project in Boston.

“There was a notice that they needed people to knit these hats for needy kids in Boston, so I contacted her,” Matson said. “She said she’d be happy to get hats [from us], and she could provide the yarn.” Yarn shops and individuals donate surplus yarn to the project, Matson explained.

Gesturing at the myriad piles of brightly colored hats heaped on her coffee table and several overflowing bags of hats on the floor, Matson said she never expected the project to be so successful.

“I never thought it would get this big.I figured we’d make 25 hats!” Matson laughed.

She stores the finished hats, along with unused yarn, in her sewing room. After collecting 75 to 100 hats, Matson boxes them up and sends them off. Last year, the knitters received a big package of hand-written thank-you notes in return from the Boston children who received the hats, along with a photo of a classroom of kids, all proudly modeling their new headgear.

One of the knitters, former elementary school teacher Julie Chadwick, remembered one of the cards in particular, that was very brief and to the point. “There was a thank-you note from a kindergarten kid, with just ‘hats’ and ‘Billy’ [on it]. It was so cute,” Chadwick said.

I asked the half-dozen women in attendance why they come to the Caps for Kids meetings. Donna Hebb said it was the easiest way to connect with Matson, to hand over the items she has made. Several of the women said they enjoy the social aspects of the group, and find it’s a good way to learn new knitting techniques and pick up pointers. In fact, the knitters are happy to teach even complete novices how to knit, Chadwick explained.

Chadwick is a veritable knitting dynamo, according to the other women in the group. When asked how many hats she produced last year, Chadwick said she had no idea, but Matson said Chadwick’s output was “easily in the hundreds” of hats. Even before she joined the Woman’s Club on her retirement several years ago, Chadwick had knit afghans for hospitalized veterans and passed them along to club members who delivered them, she said.

Handmade afghans, lap robes, and hats are still being knit by the club members for veterans at the Bedford V.A. hospital. Marie Davis, who is in charge of veterans affairs for the club, brings the gifts with her when she visits the hospital. Davis, accompanied by one or two other members, goes to the hospital monthly, where the women provide a small party with cake and ice cream for the shut-ins living there.

Not all the hats made by club members stay in Massachusetts; recently the knitters have taken on the task of helping the needy abroad as well. Last year, Matson came across two other projects, Afghans for Afghanis, and Caps to the Capitol, and the knitters jumped right in.

The Afghanistan project, started after the U.S. began fighting there in 2001, is “a humanitarian and educational people-to-people project that sends hand-knit and crocheted blankets and sweaters, vests, hats, mittens, and socks to the beleaguered people of Afghanistan,” according to its website, www.afghansforafghans.org. This organization stipulates that the donated hats should be made from 100-percent wool, Matson noted. She showed off a pile of wool children’s hats destined for that country, saying, “It’s really cold there.”

Finally, the Harvard knitters also made 30 hats for third-world newborns last year, and donated them to Caps for the Capitol, an outreach program of the well-known charity Save the Children. This charity in 2006 released a report stating that 2 million babies in developing countries die in the first 24 hours of life each year, often from causes that are easily preventable.

To publicize these facts, the charity asked women in this country to knit tiny hats for impoverished newborns overseas and attach notes, addressed to President Bush, requesting that our government help provide medical and development aid to the poorest children in the world. After the charity brought the hats to Washington D.C. to show to government officials, they were sent overseas. Last year, 75,000 of these tiny knit hats went to Malawi, and a whopping 205,000 were sent to Bangladesh.