LaSalle woman’s knitting provides comfort to children experiencing traumatic events

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A LaSalle woman is using her knack for knitting to help local children when they need it most.

For the past year, Betty Chaborek has spent much of her free time knitting dolls to comfort kids who have just experienced a traumatic event.

“It gives me a thrill to imagine that some kid’s going to really like this,” Chaborek said.

After years of knitting dolls for her granddaughters, in 2024, Chaborek began making her creations for a local toy drive.

However, after dropping off the toys at a LaSalle Fire hall, she learned they’re serving a different purpose in the community.

“They put them in the police cars and the fire trucks and handed them out,” she said.

In times of traumatic events, Chaborek noted, toys can provide a small sense of comfort to children involved.

For a firefighter putting out a house fire, or a police officer reporting to the scene of a car crash, Chaborek’s dolls have become another tool to ensure everyone involved is okay.

“Oftentimes, there are kids in the car, and it’s very traumatic to them. They’re crying. They don’t know what’s happening, and they see their mother or father hurt. So, this helps them just to hang on to something. So it’s a good feeling,” she said.

Once an intelligence analyst for Windsor Police, she said her goal was to do something that can benefit those on the frontlines.

This year, she estimates about 60 dolls were donated to LaSalle police and LaSalle fire.

On average, each large doll can take about two and a half days to craft from balls of yarn.

“I’m left-handed and I was taught with the right hand, so I don’t know how to switch it over, so it takes me a while to knit,” Chaborek said with a smile.

While it initially began with the goal of helping through the holidays, she’s happy to think her dolls are in the firm grasp of a child, dragging it everywhere they go.

Though the intent wasn’t to receive any recognition, she said, there’s hope her efforts can push others to find ways to help in the community.

“There are so many people… that are very talented in special ways that they could be donating and doing this kind of thing. It makes you feel so good and helps so much that I wish people would do this more,” she said.