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Operation Toasty Toes standing down

Patricia Pirog, Leslie Skowronek and Sigi Hendrickson receive applause after the Henderson County Board of Commissioners honored Operation Toasty Toes.

After 13 years of shipping socks, caps and slippers to warm military personnel in war zones across the globe, Operation Toasty Toes is standing down.

On Monday the Henderson County Board of Commissioners honored the Flat Rock-based knitters with a resolution of appreciation for their years of "providing warmth, comfort and support for military personnel whether on land or sea."

The local knitters formed as Chapter 7 of the Ohio-based organization. They mailed their first box containing 106 pairs of slippers on March 14, 2002, to the Western North Carolina-based U.S. Army National Guard 210th and the 211th MP Units, which had been deployed to the mountains of Afghanistan.
“Hazel McDermott and Chris McFadden were the first two Henderson County ladies offering to help,” Pirog said in a farewell letter. “To this day I miss both of them. Hazel was an advanced knitter. I related stories of this generous woman to the committee.
“A fantastic part of the committee was their generosity to share knitting and crocheting techniques. I have found that knitting instruction books still assume that you know the small procedures one only can learn from an experienced crafter. … The response from former knitters brought the committee hundreds of skeins of yarn as well as needles and books. We had no funds and no yarn at that point. Often theirs words stressed I can no longer knit but want my yarn to go to a good cause. As the program became known the funds came in.”

Pirog announced last week that for personal and medical reasons she is giving up leadership of the chapter and disbanding it.

In accordance with the chapter’s charter, the knitting group donated all its possessions to the V.A. Medical Center in Asheville including a new computer, a DVD player, four Christmas trees with lights, patriotic ornaments and photos of military personnel who received Toasty Toes packages, and a certified check for $10,000. Pirog thanked her husband, Joe, for letting her turn their home into a yarn shop, military personnel who served, Toasty Toes donors and knitters and elected leaders.