Class knits salvation for penguins in peril

The kids dive into the task of knitting sweaters for Australian birds put at risk by an oil spill.

By PATRICK COOPER

© St. Petersburg Times, published January 21, 2001

Knit a sweater, save a little penguin. It sounded like a good deal and a good lesson for Eleanor Baumner's sixth-grade class at Keswick Christian School.

[Times photo: Fred Victorin] Willie Crispell, a sixth-grader at Keswick Christian School, struggles with needles last week as his class takes on the task of knitting sweaters for penguins near Australia.

So a few days ago, her schoolchildren had their first knitting lesson in hopes of making sweaters for the little penguins whose feathers were damaged in a oil slick last year near Phillip Island in Australia. They need sweaters -- pure wool only -- to insulate them because their damaged feathers no longer shed water, and to keep them from preening themselves and ingesting poison.

On Wednesday, Mrs. Baumner began teaching her students how to knit and to join the thousands around the world who have donated sweaters for the little penguins living on Phillip Island.

"It's a forgotten art," Mrs. Baumner said as she and five knitting-veteran volunteers taught the students. "I think every student needs to learn how to knit. You accomplish something."

The 20 students had levels of success varying from making a few "in, over and out" stitches to, well, Nikoll Hernandez.

Nikoll, the only student with knitting experience, had already made a patch of her penguin sweater by the end of class. Another student noted that "hers actually looks like something." Nikoll also helped her classmates with their work.

Her mother and grandmother taught her how to knit several years ago, but she never finished the scarf she started at the time. Although she has not knit "in a long, long time," she plans to finish the sweater project. "I'm excited," she said.

Pictures of penguins covered stretches of the classroom walls and even more penguins were drawn on students' nametags at their desks. Sitting on one ledge in the room were gumdrops and pen caps used to make -- of course -- penguins.

"We've got penguinitis in here," Mrs. Baumner said of her sixth-grade class at Keswick, 10101 54th Ave. N.

Sitting across from master knitter Nikoll, Amanda Miller had much less success and joked about the tangled mess of yarn on her needles.

"It'a knot, it's a big knot! That's all mine is," she yelled. Laughing, she said she felt sorry for the sweater's recipient: "It's going to be a cold penguin."

The three boys in the class jumped into the activity, too.

"It's like playing a sport, except sitting down," Jon Cuyler said.

At the desks next to his, Sam Ensell and Willie Crispell silently nodded and didn't move their eyes from their work.

Whether any of the students in the class finish their sweaters or not, Mrs. Baumner said their work will not go to waste.

"Those who can't make sweaters, they can still make a square," she said. This work could be knitted together with other squares to make a shawl or blanket.

The plight of the penguins began a year ago when a ship cruising near Phillip Island emptied its bilge, fouling the island's habitat.

Phillip Island, less than 100 miles south of Melbourne, is home to the little penguins, the smallest in the world, standing about 12 inches and weighing 2 pounds. After several hundred of them swam through the oil slick, the penguins could not spread their natural oil, which acts as waterproofing, through their feathers without swallowing the ship's oil. When they tried to swim, they sank like rocks. Workers who manage the Phillip Island Reserve gathered the injured birds and sent out a plea for sweaters.

The schoolchildren responded.

She added that the knitting will only help her class in their studies: "I think they learn more when they personally get involved.

The students will keep working on the sweaters after school and during some study halls.

Meanwhile, volunteers in the Tampa Bay area and around the country have been sending her dozens of sweaters, Mrs. Baumner said. "It's just mushroomed big time."

She already had sent a shipment of 75 sweaters to Australia and expects to send an even larger shipment in March. Some new sweaters already were hanging in the classroom on Wednesday, all in different colors and sizes.

The students hoped they could add to these.

Nearing the end of the class period, Mrs. Baumner asked her students "Who knows how to do this?" and more than half of the students raised their hands.

"I do," shouted Sam Ensell as he struggled successfully to make a stitch. "I do, but I don't want to move my hands!"

- Information from Times files was used in this report.

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