Boomers Legacy is calling for knitters who would like to make dolls for children in Afghanistan.Boomers Legacy — started by Maureen Eykelenboom to honour her son, Andrew, a Canadian Forces medic who lost his life in Afghanistan and who was called Boomer by his friends and comrades —  has been mobilizing people to knit caps for Afghan children since 2006.Andrew Eykelenboom told his mother that he wanted help for the Afghan children, whom he described as having next to nothing. She started Boomers Legacy, urging her friends and associates to knit Boomer Caps.More recently, volunteer knitters have been knitting small dolls to go overseas with the caps.These have become popular and are in short supply, according to Boomers Legacy.Two shipments of caps and dolls were recently sent to Zimbabwe for distribution by Rotary to birthing hospitals.Disaster Aid Canada of Victoria is putting together 150 shelter boxes to be sent to Haiti.Their truck will come to Courtenay early this year to pick up 1,500 Boomer Caps.The last shipment delivered to them in late 2010 included all the dolls that Boomers Legacy had on hand, and the foundation is hoping to send more dolls overseas.Patterns for the dolls are available at all local yarn and fabric stores and from the Evergreen Seniors Club knitters group, which meets every Tuesday at 1 p.m. at the Florence Filberg Centre.Another group of knitters meet at the Village Yarn Shoppe in the Comox Centre Mall on Thursday afternoons.All of the shipments go to hands-on reputable distributors who receive the caps and dolls and make sure they go directly to intended and deserving recipients.Since Maureen Eykelenboom started Boomers Legacy, thousands of caps have been provided to children in need in many parts of the world.The pattern for the caps is available at www.boomerslegacy.ca and has been accessed by many knitters in several Canadian provinces.

Comox Valley Record