Kevin Riordan: The 'Hookers,' Happily Helping

Dorothy Golley's first yarncraft class at Audubon Towers drew a crowd.

"I put up a poster in the lobby saying 'hookers needed,' " says Golley, 88.

"When we met, some of the men in the building stood around and watched. They wanted to know where the hookers were."

Sorry, fellas. The dozen ladies gathered in the community room of the seniors complex were there to make hats, not whoopee.

That was in 2010. Since then, Golley's lively group of grandmotherly gals has donated more than 500 woolly, hand-hooked winterwear items to programs for South Jersey's sick or needy kids and to churches.

While the ladies sometimes jokingly call Golley "madam," she's actually a lay minister.

The homely art of hooking - a simple yarn-looping technique - can be an act of faith.

"We're giving glory to God, not puffing ourselves up," Golley says.

"We're the happy hookers," Dorothy Rojs, 80, a former waitress from Lindenwold, says, beaming.

The ladies use a handheld circular frame (there are four sizes) and a metal hook to transform double strands of yarn into simple caps for infants, children, and grown-ups. Yarn donations are gratefully accepted.

The learning curve is so gentle and the gratification so immediate - a hat can be finished in an afternoon - that Golley insists even I could make one.

Don't be so sure, madam. But her ladies certainly are productive.

"I've made about 75 or 80 hats. I have to keep busy," says former Westmont resident Mary Johnson, who at 95 is the group's senior member.

"I've made 135," Rojs says. "It just makes me feel good that I can help children who have cancer. My own daughter died of cancer."

The group regularly donates hats to Camden's Ronald McDonald House, which describes itself as a home away from home for the families of children seeking medical care at local hospitals.

"Everybody gets a kick out of getting a hat," says the facility's executive director, Ann "Teddy" Thomas.

"The ladies bring them in and we put them in a basket with a note, 'Help yourself.' Folks that are here can find one in a color or size that appeals to them, or to take to the little one in the hospital."

Though Thomas hadn't heard Golley and her crew described as "hookers," she did have a word for them: "Wonderful."

"I'd call them a fun group, a really neat group, of ladies," says the Rev. John Young, pastor of New Covenant Community Church in Audubon.

"Maybe a little ornery, too," he adds, noting that his relationship with them started when Golley insisted - insisted - the church accept a donation for the pre-Thanksgiving feast she and some of the gals enjoyed there.

Golley finally offered about 50 hats, which were accepted.

"They really wanted to bless [us] back," Young says.

"We have a food pantry where we serve 120 to 130 people, and we're making [the hats] available to them and other families in need."

The hookers say the handwork keeps them busy. And the donations keep them engaged with the community outside the Towers.

"This project [is] a gift" for giver and receiver alike, Golley says.

Meet Audubon's Dorothy Golley and her happy hookers: www.philly.com/hookersEndText