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Homeless, he helps himself, others by knitting 'Compassion Hats' Trinidad Flores, 40, makes a hat Wednesday at Medford's Alba Park. Flores started knitting the hats last year for homeless people and for babies. [Mail Tribune / Jamie Lusch] Friday Feb 17, 2017 at 2:51 PM Feb 18, 2017 at 9:27 AM Buffy Pollock for the Mail Tribune While he began knitting three years ago as a way to combat depression and find a sense of purpose, Trinidad Flores took to his chosen craft as if he'd been doing it his entire life. In fact, Flores, who is homeless, has become so adept at knitting that since last winter he has produced more than 1,000 hats for donation to homeless people and babies. Seemingly oblivious to a chilly breeze Wednesday, the 40-year-old sat on a picnic table, his bike and cart nearby, in downtown Medford's Alba Park. Working on a blue-and-purple hat, he noted, "This one's for a family I met at Hawthorne Park this weekend. They needed a hat for their tiny little baby." With plans to make matching hats for a set of twins and another small pile destined for distribution at the nearby WIC office, Flores says the hats give him a way to help others and gain a sense of purpose. When he finishes an assortment of hats destined for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Rogue Regional, he rides his bike to the hospital and rings the bell to beckon a nurse. "I don't even have a name of a person there who would know who I am," he says. "I just go drop them off." Some downtown business owners seek him out to talk about his project and offer donations to keep it going, he says. "Some people know me by name, but the ones who don't will come outside and say, 'Hey, you're the hat man,' " Flores says. Homeless for about three years, Flores says he moved to Oregon from Michigan about six years ago to be near family. He is now divorced and battles with depression, and his 8-year-old son lives with his mother while he stays in area shelters and outside, he says. In addition to making hats, Flores volunteers time at a recently opened warming station and offers lessons to anyone with a desire to learn his knitting technique. "When you give a person something productive to do, it changes the mindset. When you change the mindset, other things start to change, too," he notes. "My goal is really to be able to teach other people who want to learn how to do this. I'd like to maybe start my own nonprofit." Flores, who dubs his creations "compassion hats," credits support from Compass House, an outreach program for people facing mental illness, and Compassion Highway Project founder Melissa Mayne, who works with the homeless. Mayne applauded Flores' kindness and willingness to help others. "I first met him when he was in the street and needed a tarp. From then we became instant friends, and he's always been so supportive of Compassion Highway — he's always been willing to help in any way," Mayne says. "When the shelter opened at Set Free, he was the first person I could think that I trusted to help the people there. The knitting was a way to help his anxiety, and then he started handing them out at the shelter, and it was so well received, he would sit up making them all night long." Ryan Hemme, outreach coordinator for Compass House, says Flores has a loyal following for both his knitting and his kind nature. "He's such a genuinely nice person, so anytime he's in here working on his knitting or volunteering, he's a great guy to talk to," Hemme says. "I think the best part of it is that ... he started out in a great place and for a good reason. It was his therapy to do the knitting and doing these beanies. It gives him a release, therapeutically, and a significance. It's something that helps others, but it also helps him to have people needing him." Now armed with a website and social media, Flores says his goal is to "stockpile hats over the summer" to distribute next winter, and to look into teaching hat-making. "It helps others and it helps me," he says. "If it makes people happy, it must be a good idea." To help, see https://compassionhats.wixsite.com/compassionhats/current-needs orwww.facebook.com/CompassionHatsmedford/ — Reach freelance writer Buffy Pollock at [email protected]