Commonwealth employees knit for a purpose

Although the company participates in numerous charity events, the hat project is one that hits close to home, particularly for Scott Schutte, the Vice President of Wealth Management Consulting.

Schutte’s 5-year-old son Beck was diagnosed with a low-grade brain tumor about a year and a half ago. Beck Schutte, who used to occasionally come to work with his father and befriend the Commonwealth employees, now spends much of his time at the children’s oncology department at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

“One of the first things that happen when you start your cancer treatment is you lose your hair,” Scott Schutte said. “They have hats at Dana-Farber, there's a big bucket of them, but my son said the hats are not that cool, they’re not hip.”

He described the current hats as a beret style in colors that his son deemed uncool.

With the goal of making cooler and hipper hats that the children will be excited to wear, the knitting group at Commonwealth has made about 80 hats so far. They hope to make 100 before they are delivered.

Vice President of Advanced Planning Tere D'Amato said she formed the group with her coworker Paula Caputo shortly after she learned how to knit. Caputo secured a donation for the price of yarn and researched the best type of yarn to use for people who have lost their hair.

“We started knitting away and then some new people who had never even knitted before asked if we could teach them,” D’Amato said. “Now we get together in the morning every Friday and do a little knitting lesson.”

Scott Schutte said the hats that the knitting group has made are far more appealing to the kids than the berets.

“They’re the pointy court jester looking hats, they use cooler colors, they kind of roll up a little bit, some of them have little patches with Superman or Spiderman,” he said.

He said that the superhero patches are particularly important, since his son and other patients at Dana-Farber sometimes dress up as superheroes during their treatment.

“It’s intimidating when they put this big needle in your chest, so (Beck Schutte) liked to wear his Hulk costume because it made him feel invincible,” Scott Schutte said. “The knitting team put patches of superheroes on the hats to make the kids feel like they are superheroes themselves.”

The hat delivery is scheduled for Nov. 18, and Schutte said he is excited for the children to receive them.

“Even though it’s just a hat, it shows that people care,” he said. “It helps them know that people want to do whatever they can to support them.”