Ask anyone:  West Virginia is different from a lot of other places.

Our geography, our culture, our way of life.  We take pride in ourselves and our state; it’s

Pink Ribbon Scarf - Over 1200 Feet So Far

something we love to share with the world.

More than anything else, what makes us unique is our people.  Anyone who’s lived here, or even stayed with us for a visit, will hurry to tell you:  The people of West Virginia are some of the friendliest on earth.

We are a family.

That’s never more apparent than in the way we care for each other.  People in West Virginia have hearts as big as the mountains that surround us, and as deep as the valleys that define us.  We care.

Here’s a blog post by Kay Bess, Marketing Director here at the Southern West Virginia Convention And Visitor’s Bureau. It’s about a project that she and others created to show how much they care.

The Pink Ribbon Scarf

The scarf idea began in January as part of Terri’s Tribute, a scholarship fund for Terri Massey’s three children and other kids who have lost parents to breast cancer.  It was also a way for a lot of people to participate and be involved in the project.  Flyers were developed and distributed, emailed and snail mailed to potential knitters.

Knitting classes were held on Friday nights at the Oak Hill Methodist Church.  Some women showed up who could crochet, so we added the pattern for how to crochet a piece to the flyer.

Learning and Creating in Southern WV

The first few pieces measured 32 feet and we were excited and encouraged.  And then pink knitted and crocheted pieces of every hue of pink yarn started showing up in my mail box at home, at my office, some were dropped at the local library and also at my Jazzercise class. It was very emotional to open the bags and read the notes and stories of why people chose to be a part of the scarf project.

I kept track of the names of the knitters and crocheters and who they wanted to honor or memorialize with their piece and wrote personal thank you notes to the over 70 women and one man who shared our passion to make this scarf long enough to wrap around Oak Hill High School stadium for the Fayette County Relay for Life.

Phone messages were left on my answering machine from two knitting clubs in New York who had heard about the project and wanted to offer help.  The scarf went from 32 to 125 to 250 to 430 feet quickly. One weekend I got 140 feet on Friday and 210 more on Sunday which got us to 780 feet.

To date, we are over 1200 feet, 80 people from 12 states have contributed to the scarf.  There are still pink yarn pieces being knitted and crocheted as this is being written and one knitting club in NY is sending a box full from their group.

Regardless of the quality of the workmanship every piece we receive is being melded into the whole scarf, regardless of dropped stitches or mistakes in the knitting.  This isn’t about how perfectly we can knit or crochet, this is about our love of Terri and other sisters, moms, friends and family members who’ve fought breast cancer and those who will fight it in the future.

Our hope is to cover Oak Hill High School stadium in pink yarn on June 18-19 for the Fayette County Relay for Life as an awareness campaign that breast cancer can strike any woman at any time.  And the scarf will be a memorial to our beautiful Terri and to women everywhere who have fought and lost, those who are still fighting and those who are survivors.  And we hope the scarf will travel around to other relays and events re-inforcing the tagline:

“Together we can make a difference.”