How a senior's efforts to craft hats for students knitted his community together

Al Sampson has loom knitted about 400 hats this year for local students. (Robert Lothian/CTV News Windsor)

A Windsor, Ont., man knitting hats for kids in need has inspired his neighbours to make sure more than just ears are staying warm.

Al Sampson, or “Mr. Hatter” to some, began loom knitting hats for students about four years ago.

“Coming down Dougall Avenue to the school over there, and I saw the young kids walking across the snow and everything, and I thought, ‘they haven’t got no hats on,’” Sampson said.

Yarn in hand, a motivated Sampson got to work, pulling the strand around his loom 99 times to create one hat.

Since 2021, Sampson has made about 1,600 hats, including 400 this year, which will be given to schools across Windsor-Essex.

With each hat taking about two and a half hours, the 93-year-old has spent about 4,000 hours, or more than 166 days, knitting the hats.

“I just do it in my spare time from when I'm working in the shop, then I come up and have my lunch, I go to sleep for an hour and a half,” Sampson explained.

“Then I sit down before supper and do the hats, then I have my supper, then I have my hats again after dinner.”

So far, Sampson said the response from the school boards has been very positive.

The work by Sampson has inspired those in his building, a Community Living Among Seniors facility, to get in on the action.

Joan Burton, a resident of the south Windsor building, said about two years ago, she realized Sampson was purchasing all the yarn himself.

Burton used one of the building’s regular Saturday morning coffee meetings to ask other residents if they would donate yarn.

“Well, the next Saturday, so much yarn came in that we filled two shopping carts,” Burton said.

A retired teacher, Burton noticed students may be lacking more than hats and used another meeting to ask for socks, mittens and gloves.

“The response was overwhelming,” Burton said.

This year, Burton issued a similar message, and one resident crafted signs within the elevators asking for donations.

The result was nearly 300 pairs of socks and about 100 pairs of mittens and gloves.

Despite the significant support, Burton wasn’t surprised by the generosity.

“Because this building is very generous. We take very good care of each other,” she said.

“It gives us something to do, something to think about besides ourselves.”

On Monday, Burton will begin delivering the donated items and Sampson’s hats to schools in the region.

“Well, sometimes they're surprised when I show up with a bag full of hats, and other times they're just more or less welcoming,” Burton said.

“The people that are in the schools, the frontliners, they know there's a need. They know that the kids need to have hats and socks and mittens and gloves.”

For Sampson, loom knitting hats began as a way to avoid spending his days watching television. He’s already started to knit the hats he will be donating in 2025.

At 93 years young, he plans to see his 100th birthday - the same age Canadians must be to receive a birthday greeting from His Majesty the King.

“I want my letter,” Sampson laughed, adding he will “definitely” continue to make hats in the meantime.