ESSEX, Conn. -- A 92-year-old woman who started a hobby in her youth is making crafts to benefit seniors.

Lucille Gear has eight sisters, all of whom grew up in Essex. In her 20s -- back in the 1930s -- her mother offered her some long-lasting advice.

"Do something; don't sit there," Gear recalled.

So, she recently started making decorations for Christmas and other craft items for senior citizens -- many who are younger than she is.

Lucille Gets In Gear For Others

When Gear retired from the E.E. Dickinson Witch Hazel Co. in 1990 -- after 45 years on the job -- she wasn't about to sit around watching TV and watch things happen.

"The harder you work, the better off you are," she said.

Gear makes all of her dolls, teddy bears, magnets and Christmas ornaments for charity. Each year, the senior center in Lyme has a Christmas fair, and Gear crochets a lot of the goods it sells to support the center.

"I pay for it out of my own pocket: dolls, you name it," Gear said.

Whatever doesn't sell at the senior center is donated elsewhere. Gear said she crochets every day.

"Some days, I get one and then I go to something else. I've got an afghan started that eventually will go to somebody, I don't know who, but somebody will get it, not me," she said.

Gear Helps Many Groups

When Gear isn't busy crocheting up a storm and making crafts for the senior center fundraiser, she's busy making items for people in convalescent homes, like the Saybrook Healthcare Facility.

Gear said she uses her own pattern. "The people sit in chairs can't get their sweater on -- they get one sleeve, but they can't get around," she said.

So, Gear makes the residents shawls that are easier for them to wear.

"The women who sit in wheelchairs can put their arms underneath to keep themselves warm," Gear said.

The people who receive Gear's good works are often younger than she is. Another popular creation at the nursing home includes Gear's lap quilts.

"The lap blankets are always a pattern on one side and solid on the other. These are great for our residents who are in wheelchairs; they just put them on their laps," said Courtney Burks, the facility's director of recreation.

Burks added, "The residents, they get very excited when she comes in because she comes in with two garbage bags and she goes right down the recreation room."

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