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| Kentwood Park resident Anna Boersma shows off the children's
socks she has knit for the home's upcoming bazaar. She won first prize
in the local fall fair for her crocheted tablecloth. |
 Resident’s
tablecloth takes first prize at fall fair
Friday November 7, 2003 Natalie Miller
When Anna Boersma was in Grade 2, knitting and crocheting
were part of the curriculum.
Now in her eighties, her fingers still work like magic,
guiding countless knitting needles through oodles of wool. One of Anna’s
latest creations is an ivory tablecloth with an embedded pineapple pattern.
It’s a piece that earned her first prize in the Picton community’s
fall fair. While the Kentwood Park resident’s knitted and crocheted
items have faired well in the past, Anna admits it is pleasing to see
a ribbon attached to her masterpieces.
“I love it when I win first prize,” she says. “That
makes you feel pretty good.”
Prior to moving into the Picton long-term care home in 2000,
Anna hadn’t thought to enter the tablecloths, afghans and booties
into competition. But staff convinced her. “Everybody thought it
was beautiful,” says Anna of the tablecloth. So did her daughter,
Tina Jacques, who will keep the heirloom in the family.
Anna always has a project on the go and is currently knitting
socks for toddlers which she’s donating to the long-term care home’s
upcoming bazaar. “There’s so cute they’re going to be
gone in a jiffy, I hope,” says Anna. She knits and crochets her
mornings away before turning to computer games in the afternoon.
Karen Neadow, Kentwood’s life enrichment co-ordinator,
says Anna’s work is of high calibre.
“The workmanship in it is absolutely beautiful,”
says Karen.
“The quality of it was professionally done. To her, it’s
just another tablecloth. She was really, really pleased (the judges) thought
so much of her talent.”
Kentwood participates annually in the September fair run by
the Picton Agricultural Society. This year, about a dozen residents entered
crafts in the division for long-term care homes. Staff and residents then
visit the fair the following day and indulge in cotton candy, candied
apples and other fall-fair specialties. Participation in the event is
an opportunity to “promote the quality of life that we do have within
the home,” says Karen.
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