Former Guilderland resident returns with a gift for police

— Photo from Guilderland Police Chief Carol Lawlor

Wearing the thin blue line: Sergeant Carl Duda, Officer Bill Dvorscak, Senior Patrolman Jim Brust, Officer Matt Hanzalik, and Officer Tylor Stevens model the caps made for them by Mary Marra, 73, of Latham.

GUILDERLAND — Despite the unseasonable spring snow, patrol officers of the Guilderland Police Department should be feeling the cold a bit less, thanks to a gift from former town resident Mary Marra.

Marra dropped off a box at the station in March containing 25 caps that she crocheted for the officers.

The caps are black and decorated with a thin blue line. Police are sometimes called “the thin blue line,” a reference to the solidarity among officers.

Marra, who is 73, has been crocheting since she was 16. She crochets “constantly,” she says, and estimates that the officers’ caps took her about three weeks to make.

Patrol officers will wear them in winter in place of their police caps, said Chief Carol Lawlor, who added that Marra’s work is “beautiful, gorgeous.” Lawlor said, “It seems like a huge project. I respect that kind of talent.”

Marra lived in Guilderland for 40-some years and now lives in Latham. “But I couldn’t have done it for Colonie or Albany; there are too many officers,” she said. “I would have been at it for a year.”

Marra called Lawlor at the beginning of the year and asked if her officers would want the hats, and Lawlor said they would.

Marra likes to make things for people. In December she made 15 tiny red-and-white sweater outfits, brought them to Bellevue Hospital, and told the nurses there, “‘Give them to any babies born on Christmas Day.’” And they did, she said.

Next, she is thinking about making black caps with a red stripe for the Guilderland paramedics.

 

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