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MILWAUKEE — A Wisconsin man has spent most of his retired life volunteering in the Milwaukee community.

For over a decade, he’s taken one of his hobbies and turned it into something meaningful. Dave Glenn has been making scarves for the Sojourner Family Peace Center for close to 20 years.

Just one of his scarves takes about eight to 10 hours to make. Although it can take a long time, knitting is known to be a slow, yet peaceful process.

“It does take a long time to do 10,000 stitches and working on something like this for five or six days is a long time,” Volunteer, Dave Glenn said.

Knitting is something Dave Glenn enjoys doing in his free time. He’s been doing it since he was 12 years old.

“It is meditative for me. It gives me something to do that is interesting,” Glenn said.

In 2006 Glenn started work at the Sojourner Family Peace Center. It’s where he was first introduced to the work they do with survivors of domestic violence. And with his knitting skills, he knew he could do something to give back.

“Giving them something that was theirs to keep and theirs that they could take with them was really something kind of special,” Glenn said.

For the past 16 years he’s been making and donating scarves to the family peace center. The scarves go to survivors of domestic violence who often show up with no possessions of their own. But they can leave with one of his handmade scarves.

“It really helps when I am doing this that it is going to someone who is really in need of something and someone whose life might be better because of it and someone who will have a possession that hopefully they can keep for a long time,” Glenn said.

Glenn is a meticulous man who has gotten his scarf making work down to a science. He’s made around 500 so far and has a goal of bringing 1,000 scarves to those in need. It’s something that warms the hearts of the employees at the family peace center.

“The number of lives he has impacted and touched with his kindness is incredible. It means a lot, it means a great deal. Every year it means a lot to someone new, but if you look at the cumulative effect of his work it’s incredible,” Sojourner Family Peace Center Vice President, Cherie Swenson said.

Glenn says he comes back year after year knowing the impact one scarf can make.

“This means that 500 people have received something that I have made which is kind of cool,” Glenn said.

He can provide a beautiful item that not only warms people’s necks but also their hearts.