There were people of all shapes and sizes

who brought in objects of all shapes and sizes yesterday. 
There is a size limit for the handicraft section of the state's annual show. It is probably just as well. Some people make large things. Other people make tiny things. Some people only enter one thing. Other people enter many things.
There is a section in the schedule which says, "Handicraft for others."  The first year it was just a section for soft toys made for patients at the children's hospital. Now there are three more sections. The first to be added was a "memory box" - given to mothers who lose a child at or close to birth. The next was "chemo caps" for chemotherapy patients. The last, added this  year, was "hats for the homeless."
There were some beautiful items donated this year. The work that has gone into them is extraordinary. Yes, you can get a "ribbon" for your work but that is not the point. A mother came in and delivered two items.
    "Better than I could do," she told the person who took them. Her daughter is apparently just thirteen and was "excited" by the idea that she had made something to be given away. What is more she was putting the items in an "open" class because there was nowhere else to put them. If she won anything it would be competing against adults. 
I eyed the hat off. It wasn't perfect seaming but the knitting was very, very even. That was beautifully done even if it was just simple garter stitch stripes. 
We put it with the other hats ready for judging. There were hats there not as good as that -- but the important thing is that each hat  was something that could be worn and someone will no doubt be happy to have one of them.
There was a wonderful cuddly white lion - the sort of soft toy a  child will be able to hold by arm, leg or tail and take to bed in perfect safety. It was also soft and "squishy" and exactly fitted the term "cuddle toy". Someone had put a lot of work into that too...as others had put into other cuddly toys. I know how much they can mean to young children in hospital who have left everything  behind.
We sorted them all into piles ready for judging and I mentioned how pleased I was that the section was growing. The person helping me agreed, "It's supposed to be a show for everyone in the state."
Yes.
And the striped garter stitch hat had a "commended" ribbon placed on it. I hope it encourages a thirteen year old girl to believe in herself - and other people.