RALEIGH
After two years of pandemic schooling — learning algebra in their pajamas, wearing face masks to gym — the people of Raleigh’s Sanderson High School wanted a monument to their educational slog.
So to commemorate their triumph over COVID-19 fatigue, students, teachers and friends wrapped 55 trees on campus with yarn-art sweaters, taking a final swipe at the virus that upended their lives.
“Both of my girls, at one point, had complete breakdowns,” said parent Jennifer Pittman, who hit on the idea last September. “It’s tough being inside the same four walls.”
Now, with virtual learning finished and the mask mandate lifted, the Sanderson trees stand in colorful defiance to the dimly lit bedrooms where so many endured COVID’s worst days.
One grandmother, Julia Williams, turned out one tennis-themed tree scarf and another decked out with soccer balls — nods to her grandchildren’s tastes.
Calling all knitters
But Pittman, who took up knitting via YouTube as a cure to pandemic isolation, recruited anybody with a pair of needles.
“People I saw knitting in public ...” she said.
The gesture may seem slight, but it resists the idea that hard times must be braved alone, proving that comfort arrives by many hands.