82-Year-Old South Carolina Woman Crochets Nearly 200 Hats For Blind And Deaf Students

Judy delivers hats
Judy delivers hats

South Carolina School for the Deaf and the Blind

With autumn approaching, it occurred to Julia "Judy" Pitts that each student at South Carolina School for the Deaf and the Blind might appreciate a warm, colorful hat.

"I've been crocheting for over 50 years," Pitts said in a statement. "During the pandemic, I made lots of hats with all sorts of designs and characters kids love, and when I was thinking through places I could donate them to, the students at the South Carolina School for the Deaf and the Blind (SCSDB) came to mind."

On October 3rd, the 82-year-old delivered more than 170 crocheted hats for the students at the Spartanburg school.

South Carolina School for the Deaf and the Blind
South Carolina School for the Deaf and the Blind

South Carolina School for the Deaf and the Blind

"I love to see the kids," Pitts told The Post and Courier. "This makes my heart happy."

From hats with pompoms and pizza patches to hats crocheted into the shapes of pigs, foxes, and bears, every student at SCSDB received a hat that was special for them.

"The SCSDB Foundation is so grateful to Judy for thinking of our students this time of year," Sam Hook, Executive Director of the SCSDB Foundation, said in a release. "Smiles have been delivered all across campus because of these handmade hats."

This isn't the first child-focused organization that Pitts has donated her creations to.

In the past 50 years she's donated to a children's cancer center in Greenville, an orphanage in South Dakota, and Connie Maxwell Children's Ministries in Greenwood.

"Everybody has talents," she told The Post and Courier.  "It's just about putting them out there and going forward."