We first introduced you to Penn Collins in 2019. He taught himself to crochet as a way to pass the time at the dog park. He uses bright colors and calls them his “Silly Hats.”
“It’s a feeling of accomplishment. I am on disability, and I’ve always felt like, you know, I’m just sitting here doing nothing. And at the end of the day you go, ‘Wow, I made five hats.’ Or if it’s, you know, I’ve got a good Netflix binge going, I can knock out eight or nine hats,” Penn Collins said.
Collins was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year.
“So the joke was, when I lost all my hair, they were going to give me one of my hats back. And what’s been really cool is when I go up there and have an appointment, at the end of the counter is a basket with my hats in it. And that just does it for me,” he explained.
When he received a package during his treatment from someone he had never met, he said he finally understood the impact his hats have on others.
“They sent me a box, and it was a lapghan. I had just finished radiation that day. I was exhausted. I wrapped it around me, and I had the best nap I’ve had in years. And it suddenly clicked in my brain. I was like, ‘Wait a minute, a complete stranger made this for me.’ And it had never clicked in my head before that this is what happens when people get one of my hats,” he said.
He’s now in remission and continuing to stitch warmth into the world, with no plans to stop.
“I don’t see why not. I guess that’s my way of looking at it,” Collins said.
