Hooked on Helping Cancer Patients
When you learn how much time Pat Westrick has spent crocheting colorful hats for cancer patients, you’ll think we’re spinning a yarn. We promise we are not. As Taylor Swift would say, “Are you ready for it?” The average workday is 8 hours, five days a week. If Pat Westrick worked every week of the year for more than two and a half years, that would be the magic number. It takes her somewhere between two and three hours to crochet one hat. Now multiply that by 2,150 hats donated. That is the total number of hours she has spent creating striped, multi-colored hats for WMCC patients.
Westrick is a retired schoolteacher from Richland who became interested in crocheting hats when a friend—the parent of one of her students—was diagnosed with breast cancer. “I thought to myself, people need hats when they lose their hair. So I got on my computer, looked up how to crochet hats, and printed out patterns,” Westrick said. “I made about eight different styles of hats but a friend wasn’t crazy about them, commenting that they were either too big or too small. So, we called the cancer center to ask and ended up settling on one pattern.” That was 2009.
A washcloth pillow with a crocheted edge was the first item she learned to make from her grandmother when she was a young girl. Years later, after marrying her husband and becoming a mom, Westrick found new projects to crochet for her two boys. Blankets, scarves, and even vests. “I made a vest for my son to wear to Catholic school,” she recalled. “He probably wore it once.”
Westrick attributes her giving spirit to her upbringing, time spent as a Girl Scout and her family’s deep devotion to their Catholic faith. She has spent countless hours volunteering at church for luncheons and special projects and at the diocesan level with Scouts and persons with disabilities. Through Catholic Charities Diocese of Kalamazoo, Westrick packed food boxes for area pantries during the COVID-19 pandemic. “I really enjoyed my time working with the Diocesans’ Bread of Life program,” she said.
Perhaps most fulfilling for Westrick is spotting different people across West Michigan, wearing her hats. “I was at a pizza place and two ladies came in. One was wearing a hat and I knew I had made it. Sadly, she looked ill. I told her, “that’s a nice hat,” and she said, “thank you,” Westrick recalled. “Another time, I was walking through the parking lot at Target and told a woman nearby that I thought her hat was nice, though I had actually not crocheted that particular one. I had a few hats in my car and offered her one—she picked a pink one.”
Pat Westrick wanted to be a math teacher. However, back in the 60’s, when she was trying to decide on a career path, she says were women were discouraged from doing so. Instead, she became an elementary school and special education teacher. It all worked out perfectly. All the little fourth graders loved her (they could read and were shorter than me!) and the math? Well you know the answer to that.
Happy Thanksgiving to Pat Westrick, her family and our entire WMCC family.
