It’s been two years since we first put the word out that Nancy Johnson, a member of Southwest Texas EC, has the dream of providing all babies born in Texas in February with red hats. Johnson volunteers as the Texas ringleader for the American Heart Association’s Little Hats, Big Hearts project to raise awareness of congenital heart defects. February is American Heart Month.
Johnson’s home in Sonora is the de facto headquarters for her efforts, and thousands of handmade hats—knitted, crocheted and loomed—have passed through it since that first Currents item in 2016 and a cover story in 2017 were published. Hundreds of volunteers have contacted Johnson after learning of her quest through Texas Co-op Power.
Johnson arranges for hospitals to participate in the program. She says she added 20 hospitals to the program in the past year. “I am covering many rural, small-town hospitals where most of the co-op people go for their health care,” she says. She also added Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth.
To learn more, donate or make hats, contact Nancy Johnson at (325) 226-3659 or [email protected], or visit heart.org.
