Friends encouraged Iris Williams to take up knitting. By so doing, they figured, she would keep her hands out of the cookie jar and snack bags, and thus stop fretting about gaining weight.
So she joined the Knit-Wits club at Orlando's Reeves Methodist Memorial Church.
And on Wednesday at Expo Centre, at the 13th annual recognition luncheon of the Retired Senior Volunteer Program of Orange County, Iris Williams, 73, was named Queen of the Volunteer Court.
The honor came as a result of items she knitted for nursing homes, B.E.T.A., adult day care centers and needy children, and for all the hours she logged for other volunteer endeavors.
She was nominated for the honor by Meals on Wheels of the Christian Service Center.
"I never dreamed this would happen," she said during her coronation at the luncheon, attended by more than 500 people.
Henry Rudin, who has worked 4,000-plus volunteer hours for Florida Hospital Auxiliary, was named King of the Court. He was out of town Wednesday, so Aggie Churchill, the director of volunteers for Florida Hospital Auxiliary who nominated him for the award, accepted the crown and sash in his behalf.
Mayor Bill Frederick, who spoke briefly at the luncheon, told RSVP members that "Orlando wouldn't be the great place we are without you."
Banquet speaker Glenda Hood of the Orlando City Council thanked the RSVP crowd for "helping, sharing and caring, and please continue to set that trend for all of us in this community."
Pamela Carroll, new RSVP program director, showed up at the luncheon in a wheelchair. She broke a bone in her foot a few days before.
After most of the guests had left the dining hall, many of them with door prizes, Queen Iris Williams was still telling friends, "I can't believe it, can't believe it."
Yes, but has knitting helped her to lose weight? She laughed. "I learned you can knit and eat at the same time."
Orlando's Frank M. Hubbard, on the board of trustees of Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, has given $366,100 to the center. This makes possible the establishment of a $606,100 endowment trust by matching funding on a three-for-two basis from the Florida Fine Arts Endowment Program.
The retired chairman of Hubbard Construction said he would like to be remembered as a builder of minds and spirits as well as roads and bridges. He said he and his wife, Ruth, aim to help the cultural and educational institutions of Central Florida fire the hearts and souls of young artists and students "to go out and change the world for the better."
Three-dot data: A talk on the Middle East peace process by Ken Stein of Emory University is slated for 4:30 p.m. Sunday at Orlando Art Center at Loch Haven Park -- not at the Science Center as previously announced. . . .
Nam Vets of Marion County's all-day Veteran's Fair is Sunday at the Ocala Breeders Sales Pavilion. For details, call Dale Todd, (904) 732-5256.
Three-dot data: A highlight of the RSVP luncheon this week was a fashion show staged by Anne Miltonberger of J.C. Penney of Winter Park. But one senior gent left the hall grumbling, "Thought they said it'd be a passion show."