While most teenagers would take their sparse supply of free time and use it for the purpose of self enjoyment, junior Sarah Garber strays from the norm. Garber regularly knits hats for newborn babies and donates them to local facilities.

“I think Sarah’s knitting is actually quite amazing because it’s not something a lot of teenage girls choose to do,” junior Anna McCaffrey said. “It’s something that she wants to do. She genuinely enjoys doing it.”

Garber’s mother taught her to knit at the age of six years old and inspired her to use her passion for the betterment of society. After hearing that the ministry at her church was accepting donations of “pre-emie” hats, hats for babies born prematurely, Garber felt the urge to contribute.

“Four years ago, I started knitting pre-emie hats just because I wanted to try a new pattern,” Garber said. “I had never knitted a hat before. I tried it and I liked it, so I found a way to use that to help others. I love being able to use something I love to help others.”

Garber donates her creations to be distributed across two hospitals, Parkland Hospital in Dallas and Texas Health Presbyterian in Plano, so that pre-emie babies suffering from health complications would be able to use them to conserve heat.

“Many pre-emies are born with health problems and have to be connected to many tubes while in the incubator,” Garber said. “These tubes only allow a hat to keep the baby warm. I feel that knitting these hats is important because I believe that everyone should feel that they are cared for and loved.”

Junior Julie Brashear, Garber’s best friend and an avid supporter of her cause, has been able to glean bits and pieces of wisdom from watching Garber regularly contribute to not only the ministry collecting preemie hats, but also to the church’s prominent prayer shawl ministry.

“I think it’s incredible that Sarah can find time to go out and knit baby hats,” Brashear said. “I’ve always thought that was really impressive of her to find time to do something that great for others.”

Garber spends roughly two hours for every hat and has knit about 250 hats, putting forth a grand total of 500 hours.

“The main reason I knit hats is to show the families that someone cares about them enough to make a handmade gift for their newborn baby,” Garber said.“I want my tiny hat to represent a large amount of warmth, love and hope for each recipient.”