The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
by David Grimes for The Quill
It was just five months ago when the ladies behind the counter at the Raritan State Bank decided to do something to boost donations for the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life events in Henderson and Warren counties this month.
In late February cashiers Diana Lange, Nancy Rankin and Linda Gearhart decided to offer crocheted and knitted dish cloths at the modest price of $2 each.
"We wanted to be sure we had enough to make it worthwhile," Gearhart said, "so we made 25 to begin with and offered them through counter sales".
From the time the first dish cloth was purchased, "they went like hotcakes," Gearhart said.
Surprised at how well the handmade pieces being offered for a good cause disappeared, the ladies set a new goal of making 100 cloths to sell and eventually enlisted the help of four members of the RSB bookkeeping department. Three other crafters later joined the project, too.
"(Bookkeeper) Tammy Heller didn't know how to knit when she started but learned quickly and now loves it," Gearhart noted.
After the goal of 100 sales was met, the goal was moved to 1,000, which proved to be no challenge either, and as of yesterday, sales had reached about 775 dish cloths for a total of $1,545.
The RSB group plans to present a check for half of the money raised to the Henderson County Relay for Life program this weekend at West Central High School and the other half to the Warren County RFL program the following weekend.
"There have been so many of us here at the bank whose live have been affected by cancer, we wanted to do something that would reflect that," Gearhart said.
Gearhart said the ladies worked on the dish cloths after work when they went home at night. Based on the difficulty of each piece's pattern and weave, individual cloths required anywhere from one hour to 3-1/2 hours to complete.
Dish cloths will continue to be available for sale at the bank through the end of next week.
"I "m not sure what I'll do with my knitting needles after that," Gearhart quipped.