About Us
If you are prepared to put your time and money into knitting and crocheting garments, blankets, beanies etc and sending them to us to distribute to the needy babies of Africa you deserve to know what little there is to know about us, our aspirations for the charity and why we have asked you to do this.
I say we, because although I am responsible for the concept, putting together the web pages and arranging the building of the site, that’s me, (Jannice), it would not have happened without my husband Graham’s help and the many other wonderful people including those listed below who gave so generously of their time and effort to help make this project happen.
Mark Bond who listened and gave advice whenever asked
Sharon Walker who helped get the project on track
Kevin McCarthy and the team from One Deep Breath who put together the Brand Articulation
Mimi Cooper who gave us some wonderful ideas for the copy
Billy Basson and his design team at Outdoor Network who donated the very necessary Collection Bins
Tanya Galbraith who designed the beautiful logo
Christopher Mills who designed and partly sponsored this fabulous site.
And last but not least to all our ever patient friends who were bombarded with emails asking them for their input on design, colour etc, we are grateful to you all.
The Idea for Knit One 2 Save One:
The idea for Knit One 2 Save One was born in 2008 one night when I was knitting for charity as I had done for many years. It occurred to me that there were many charitable minded people who would love to knit for charity but did not know how. I began to think of ways that I could access the many hands out there and Knit One 2 Save One was born.
The Tale about Us:
I was born in Zimbabwe but met Graham, who is South African, on our gap year in London. We both worked at the
Overseas Visitors Club where I worked as a barmaid and Graham was the bar manager. I always say he married me with the illusion that he would remain my manager!!
We fell in love in London and both returned to South Africa where we married in 1965. I never returned to live in Zimbabwe but my story came full circle when our eldest daughter married a Zimbabwean and lived there for 5 years before returning to South Africa because our grandson, Wesley, has a heart condition and he could get better medical care down South. We had many happy and memorable visits to the land of my birth during those 5 years.
Graham and I have three fabulous children – Dale, Robyn and Craig who are married to Ken, Jarret and Rachel (in that order!). As a result of these unions we have 6 magnificent grandchildren. Dale & Ken have Sasha & Wesley, Robyn & Jarret have Max & Rhett and Craig & Rachel have Megan & Lloyd. The joy they bring us is overwhelming which we are sure every grandparent can relate to.
Dale’s son Wesley was born with a heart condition and had open heart surgery in South Africa when he was nine months old. As the medical aid in Zimbabwe had run out of funds and had no Forex to transfer to SA, paying for the operation was difficult. Many many people we knew (and a lot we did not) helped us raise the necessary funds by donations, raffles, golf days etc. We are proud to say that Dale now runs a golf day every year at the Leuwkoop Golf Course in Johannesburg the proceeds of which go to The Walter Sisulu Paedatric Cardiac Centre for Africa which is based at the Sunninghill Hospital where Wesley had his surgery.
In 1994 Graham was offered a consultancy in England and as our children were all grown, we welcomed the new challenge and a chance to live in another country. We have been 15 years in England now but have been fortunate enough to travel back to South Africa and Zimbabwe approximately 3 times a year. All our children and grandchildren still live in SA so to be able to see them so often is a real bonus for us.
We had an idea but how to make it work?
The idea was quite simple or so we thought! We needed to get as many people as possible working towards a common
goal of keeping these needy babies warm and therefore alive. The way to do this was simply by speaking to people and asking them to speak to other people. So far it is working well but in order for the concept to explode we needed a web site – enter the lovely Christopher Mills.
Christopher and I have worked hard to get the web site up and running so Graham and I now feel that we can ask everybody we know to “spread the word!”
