SANFORD — One day, Holly Korda turned to her grandmother, Ruth Warren Webb, whose knitting needles were clacking away, and asked her when she had learned to knit. Korda was expecting  the standard answer — that her grandmother had learned  how to knit and purl from her own mother. 

Korda got quite a different answer than she expected, one that led her to a undertake a long-term research project.  She’ll be presenting the results of that research at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 6, at Goodall Library in Sanford.

Webb had learned to knit as a 12-year-old schoolgirl in Delaware in 1917. She learned in school and along with her classmates — female and male alike — they knitted bandages, socks and sweaters for troops overseas in World War I.

The American Red Cross had organized Knitting Brigades that helped the war effort, and that effort — the spirit of pulling together for a cause — helped unify the country.

“In the summer of 1917, following the U.S. declaration of war against Germany in April 1917, the American Red Cross put out an urgent call for volunteers in every state,” said Korda. Members of the Knitting Brigades knitted more than 15 million pounds of wool into socks, sweaters, hats, and bandages for American soldiers and allies overseas. 

“Women, men, and the nation’s school children knit and purled more than 23 million articles for the war effort in the most successful mobilization of community resources in the United States,” she said.

In a telephone interview Tuesday, Korda of Old Orchard Beach, pointed out that while there was an isolationist movement in the United States at the time, President Woodrow Wilson felt America had to enter what had been regarded as a European war.

“We didn’t have an infrastructure for war at the time,” she said.

The American Red Cross went from 107 chapters nationwide to 3,864 by the end of the war in 1918.

Men were knitting, woman were knitting, and children were knitting for the war effort.

“The Red Cross really mobilized the nation to knit,” said Korda.

Korda began her research before the internet — corresponding with the Red Cross’s then-archivist Patrick Gilbo. Later, she did some more digging and found more on how the country came together — not just by knitting.

“There was a group in Sanford that created a canning club,” she noted. As well, she said, a Sanford woman named Florence Spence and several other young women organized the Home Service Company, open to women 16 to 25 years old. The group organized sales and parties, and planted crops to sell to the canning club, using the money to help the war effort.

 Farmington Normal School — the former name of the teacher’s college — held patriotic pageants to raise money for the ear effort.

And, Korda said, there were knitting songs, and knitting posters proclaiming “Knitting for Sammy” — Sammy, of course, being Uncle Sam.

“It’s fascinating, and nobody knows about it,” said Korda.

So last year, she put together a presentation for The Pines, a retirement community in Old Orchard Beach.

She’s made the presentation in Camden, where she’s met others, whose do volunteer knitting today — like the grade two teacher there, who knits mittens and hats for every student in her class, or those who knit for the homeless, and others.

“The tradition of volunteerism is important, “said Korda. “My grandmother, even in her late years, remembered how important she felt, supporting the war effort when she was 12.  There’s a lot we can learn from that.”

Korda describes herself as a “very basic” knitter — she makes scarves.

“If you knit enough of them, you can make an afghan,” she quipped.

Korda urged folks who may have photos or stories or other items of volunteer efforts to bring them to the presentation and share the story that goes with them.

For more information about the April 6 presentation, contact Jean at Goodall Memorial Library at 324-4714, or visit bgoodall.org.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or [email protected].