Grandmother knits to help family raise money for medical bills

Talk about it

Rhonda Peterson has her own strategy for fighting her grandson Caleb Nord’s genetic disorder:

“I’m letting the doctors do their job with Caleb,” she said. “I can pray. I can make casseroles for the family. I can babysit for the 5-year-old (Caleb’s sister, Hannah). And I can knit.”

Peterson’s passion for knitting led her to something she calls “Caps for Caleb” to help raise money to defray the Nord family’s mounting medical bills.

Ann and Jeremy Nord both work for Murphy Warehouse Co. in Minneapolis and have excellent health insurance, Ann said. But the cost of a bone marrow transplant will bring their costs beyond the $1 million cap on Caleb’s health plan, they’ve been told.

Peterson and friends at the Yarn Harbor at Mount Royal Shopping Center have been furiously knitting baby-sized hats, including some particularly soft hats for babies undergoing chemotherapy. They are given away in exchange for any donation to the Caps for Caleb fund.

The effort “kind of got out on the Web,” Peterson said, and she is receiving donated hats from around the world. Just the other day, she received a box full of hats — one designed to look like a strawberry — from friends in the Ukraine. She has received some from Portugal. It’s the project for the month of June on a website for knitters called ravelry.com.

Peterson said she doesn’t want to just ask for donations.

“I feel better if I give people something,” she said. “I want to give you something for a donation.”

Caps for Caleb are available at Yarn Harbor. For more information, call Peterson at (218) 728-5788.

Tags: news, health, money