Page 6
October 9, 2019
Mississippi
Alberta
North Portland
Vancouver
East County
Beaverton
photo by d anny p eterson /t he p ortland o bserver
Sheila Sylvester (left) and Annie Nuomi, co-chairs of Warm Heads and Hearts, a volunteer sewing, knitting and crocheting group that creates hats for our neighbors
experiencing homelessness. The diverse group regularly meets at New Song Community Church at 2511 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd and has created over 1,600
articles of clothing since 2017.
Warming Heads and Hearts
Diverse sewing
group gives back
d anny p eterson
As the colder temperatures of fall once
again permeate the Portland area, one di-
verse community group is taking action to
help our neighbors who are homeless stay
warm on chilly nights.
The volunteer sewing group, called
Warm Heads and Hearts, was organized as
a way to provide warmth, love and dignity
to those in need on the streets by creating
handmade sewn, knitted, and crocheted
hats and scarves for donation.
The organization’s founder and co-chair
Annie Noumi told the Portland Observ-
er the effort started as part of her church
group’s ongoing outreach and service pro-
gram for the homeless in the Portland and
Vancouver areas, but has since grown to its
own organization that trains other groups,
and all faiths, to make the clothing acces-
sories.
“There’s no restrictions on who we’re
giving to. If you’re cold, you need a warm
by
head,” Noumi said. “If a church group or
otherwise contacted me, it would be very
easy for us to come in and show a group
of people to do this from the start, we’ve
already worked out the kinks. And just let
them go on their merry way doing it. I real-
ly would love to see this happening across
the nation.”
Noumi runs the group with co-
chair Sheila Sylvester, who heads up a
scarf-making team.
Since the group began in 2017, they
have already donated over 1,600 articles of
clothes in the Portland and Vancouver area
and an average of 10-20 people regularly
show up for their creating sessions, both to
learn techniques of the craft and volunteer
to donate.
The group regularly meets at New Song
Community Church at 2511 N.E. Martin
Luther King Jr. Blvd. and will hold two
events per month through February.
For more information, including how
to donate or volunteer, contact warm-
headandhearts@gmail.com, call Annie
Nuomi at 360-910-2757 or Sheila Sylves-
ter at 503-891-8644.
photo by d anny p eterson /t he p ortland o bserver
Patrishia Probasco joined Warm Heads and Hearts after taking a class from the
group to learn the craft of making handmade clothes. Now she donates her time to
give hats and scarves to the homeless.