Millersburg resident knits tons of dishcloths for charity
Marilyn Shetler knits a dishcloth or “toallita” in her home. The Millersburg resident has made over 1,300 cloths in the last 10 years to give to charity to use during free eye care exams in El Salvador.
Anyone who visits Marilyn Shetler is sure to notice the colorful knitted dishcloths around her home.
“When people see how many I have, they say, ‘What are you going to do with all those?’” Shetler said.
For over a decade, the 83-year-old Millersburg resident has made over 1,300 seven-inch cotton dishcloths to give to the Lions Club in Falls Church, Virginia. The Lions Club donates them to Eye Care International, a nonprofit organization in El Salvador, for use at its annual eye care clinics.
“We call them toallitas,” Marilyn’s daughter Deb Shetler said. “It’s the Spanish word for little towel.”
Eye Care International uses them during free eye exams as a way for patients to clean their eyes. Visitors get to keep their toallitas to use at home whenever they experience eye irritation from the environment, which has prevented thousands of eye infections, the nonprofit estimates.
Connected to the Lions Club, Deb Shetler had started knitting for the nonprofit before she traded in knitting for quilting projects. Marilyn, a lifelong knitter, then picked up the project.
A former Virginia resident, Deb Shetler makes about two trips a year to drop off her mother’s donations, which serve a dual purpose. Before they fall into the hands of eye care patients, the cloths are used to package other supplies going down.
Marilyn Shetler has about 100 toallitas waiting to be donated in November, her count starting up from the last donation in March.
“I figure each one that I make helps at least three people,” Marilyn Shetler said. “It helps me when I make them. It helps the people who are packing their equipment, and eventually, they help an El Salvadoran with their eye problems and then they can use them many times over again.”
In the beginning she followed a simple pattern but now knits from muscle memory.
“I can sit and watch TV and not even look to see what I’m doing most of the time,” Marilyn Shetler said.
She can make one in about an hour.
“Unless I go to sleep right through it,” she said.
Marilyn Shetler buys all the materials herself, making sure the yarn is 100% cotton, which holds water better than acrylic.
The amount she knits on a weekly or monthly basis varies, although she’s been making more now than in recent years. Coping with the loss of her husband a year and a half ago, along with recovering from surgery, gave her more time indoors to knit, she said.
“I had a time of adjustment and recovery and so forth,” Marilyn Shetler said. “Doing this knitting keeps my hands busy and keeps my mind busy.”
Deb Shetler said she and her sister Vicki Antequera are proud of their mother and are not surprised she continues to find ways to help others.
“Eye Care International is always very appreciative of what she gives them,” Deb Shetler said. “And I said, ‘Tell me when you want her to stop because she’s going to keep doing them,’ and they said, ‘No, no, no, we want her to continue. We need them.’”
For more information about Eye Care International, visit www.eyecareint.org or find them on Facebook at Eye Care International — El Salvador.