Sweet merciful crap this is so freakin’ cute I might actually vom.
A while ago, the Phillip Island Penguin Foundation put the call out for people around the world to make and donate tiny woollen jumpers for penguins that find themselves caught up in oil slicks – or otherwise injured – to help with their rehabilitation process.
Whilst people from all across the world sent in donations, here in Australia the call didn’t go unnoticed. More specifically, Australia’s oldest man got involved.
109-year young Alfred “Alfie” Date just so happens to be a lifelong prolific knitter, and the Nurses at his aged-care village wasted no time in utilising his very specific set of skills for a very good cause/maximum cute.
“I think I’d been in here about 12 hours, might have been 13. The two girls (nurses) come in to me and say ‘We believe you can knit.’”
They left him some heavy wool – Date quipped “if you’re using light wool, you’re wasting your time” *whimpers at how boss that is* – and he got straight to work.
The jumpers themselves are modelled on an AFL guernsey design (though obviously in wee form), and have proven a wildly successful method of rehabilitating oil slicked penguins – around 96 percent of penguins stuck in slicks are successfully returned to the wild when treated with the woollen jumpers.
Date’s skills date back around 80 years ago when a family member gave him wool and some needles asked him to knit a jumper for his newborn nephew – who, by the way, was born in 1931.
And if all that in and of itself isn’t sickeningly cute enough already for you, Date still also knits scarves for mates, as well as tiny little beanies for premature babies.
Everyone else go home. It’s over. This is not only Australia’s oldest man, it’s our cutest one as well.
Way to go, Alfie. You absolute, unrivalled, complete and total legend.
Photo: ABC News via Twitter.
via NineMSN.
