{"id":72649,"date":"2026-02-27T10:26:36","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T15:26:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/?p=72649"},"modified":"2026-02-27T10:28:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T15:28:13","slug":"genesee-county-community-spotlight-giving-back-one-stitch-at-a-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/2026\/02\/27\/genesee-county-community-spotlight-giving-back-one-stitch-at-a-time\/","title":{"rendered":"GENESEE COUNTY\/Community Spotlight\/Giving back, one stitch at a time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Riann Nurmi is our Community Spotlight for February-Pictured-Riann at one of her favorite places to crochet. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Community Spotlight<\/strong> is a new monthly feature that will highlight those who make a difference in our communities each day. If you know of someone in your community who makes a difference each day, and wants to be featured in the Community Spotlight, message Video News Service on Facebook.<\/em>]<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you spot Riann at the Tim Horton’s on Main Street or the Coffee Press on Jackson Street in Batavia, she is most likely creating a crochet masterpiece for someone and in her happy place. She mostly makes scrunchies, coasters, scarves, bandanas, and blankets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If I see somebody in need, I will make them something. I try not to tell them, because then the pressure comes on that it needs to get done fast so they don’t even know you’re making something, and you just give it to them most of the time. That’s usually how it happens. If I know them personally, it changes the outlook and the look of everything. I’ve gone out to dinner with a few people that I’ve gifted stuff to,” says Riann.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Riann says she used to watch her grandma crochet washcloths that she used in her own home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I wanted her to teach me so bad. And I sat there and I fidgeted with it, but I didn’t pick it up as fast as our daughter. My grandma didn’t give up at that point. My mom crocheted also, but she was, at that point when you crochet, you kind of zero in too much. If you’re not teaching or interacting with people, you can really become a hermit. So my mom was more of a hermit, and she didn’t have the teaching skill part of it, my grandmother did so she loved to teach me.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I was so interested in it. So, I’m sixth generation, our 12-year-old daughter is seventh generation. She is amazing where her brain goes. She creates some stuffed animals that she doesn’t have to watch a video. She just does it. She’s a natural.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Provided photo <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Riann has a gift of noticing details about people and their lives and creates crocheted items that fit the person and the person’s home decor, even their color schemes. Most of the time her creations are unexpected gifts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“My goal is to never, ever be in the Goodwill, if I can say it that way, because somebody doesn’t want something, everything that we do, every stitch is prayed over, we pray over the people who they’re going to because we know right away who it’s going to.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Walking alongside Riann during her journey is Timothy, who she met while managing a discount store in Batavia in 2021. Now married, the pair have a blended family of five children and have settled in Alexander where Riann is also homeschooling three of the children who range between the ages of 10-14 years old. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“He was working at Dollar General, and I walked in. It was like 10 minutes to closing, and I wanted a vacuum that, I swear there was a sale tag on. When I got up there, he was the key holder, and I literally was like, I swear there was a sale tag. It fell off. I swear. He gave it to me, and I thought he was really cute. And it was during that time where everyone was still wearing masks. All I saw was the blue eyes. Yeah, I was head over heels, and then as I was walking out, I saw that they were looking for an assistant store manager, and wound up applying for it, and I wound up getting it. We became really good friends after a little bit, and then I finally was like, are you gonna ask me out? I’m done waiting. He was a little nervous. We were both single parents, so it was a little nerve racking at the beginning. But we have five beautiful children.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few years ago, Riann had a health issue that slowed things down a bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I wound up having a stroke, and really, I was not picking up my yarn. They’re like, you need to do something to help your brain. He (Timothy) wound up, he wasn’t so nice about it, but he handed me my yarn and my hook, and he’d say, do it now. And he didn’t really give me a choice. It literally took me a while to get back in the flow of it. And we’ll get home from date night, and he’ll be like, are you gonna go crochet?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This past Christmas, Riann donated 90 scrunchies to a local dance company with the help of her grandmother, the scrunchies were finished in about three days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It was a fun time. Doing that all by hand. She’s still helping me. If I mess up or do a different stitch, or anything like that, she does guide me. She’s a phone call away or a FaceTime call away.” Grandma is actually only about 3 minutes down the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The road to giving back and happiness didn’t come easy. Reaching her teens, Riann started hanging out with friends more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I hung it up because it was a grandma thing to do, and it was the early 2000s nobody thought it was cool. I picked it back up about 14. I really wanted to learn how to make a sweater, like I wanted just a cardigan, but I couldn’t even do a straight line at that point in my life, because I had put it away for so long, tucked it in. So, I gave up and then picked it back up when I got pregnant with our oldest daughter, and it was wonky. Her baby blanket is tucked away in her box for her to remember forever. But it was like a triangle, and it was supposed to be a blanket, but at that point, I was a single mom. I was 19 years old, and I didn’t have enough money to even buy myself a cup of coffee. My grandparents were a huge out, but I couldn’t lean on them forever. So, I had to make my way, somehow, some way, even if I came out with some wonky things, man and I put them on her with pride.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a single parent of two children, Riann accepted help whenever someone offered. She quit smoking pot and drinking alcohol and picked up her crochet hook and yarn, going back to the skills her grandmother taught her at age 10. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I had to grow up. I stopped drinking, I stopped smoking pot. That was very hard for me, because I didn’t have anything else to do. So, I dove into this, even if it was just sitting chaining 500 of them, and it was a long chain, and I tear it apart and I redo it. I just got quicker. I just got better. And there was a foundation all the way out in East Amherst that when my mom was having me, they helped her, and then they wound up helping me. So, they donated a lot of yarn to me. To this day, I still have all the yarn they donated to me. And sadly, one of the founders had passed away, so they closed down the foundation, but they helped single moms. They help your child at Christmas stuff like that. So, when I got all this yarn, I was like, we’re doing this. I’m just locking into this.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently, Riann participated in her first vendor show at St. Anthony’s, which is a different experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It does buy the new yarn for whatever’s next, or somebody’s blanket, or somebody’s something we wind up putting into it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I think at the end of the day, our biggest thing is we just want to make the world a beautiful place, and we definitely encourage that. If anybody sits and sees somebody that needs something, I would rather them pass on their love or sit and reach out to us, and we’ll make sure that we get them something that they can give to somebody else, even if it’s not for them personally, we would absolutely love to because that’s just what we do. We try to love, and a blanket feels like a hug every time, so that’s what we try to do, everyone feels that love, especially single parents, we’ve been in those shoes, and if I didn’t have this craft, I wouldn’t have known what I would have done, especially in New York with harsh winters, with babies.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Link to Richly Radiant Crochet Facebook page:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/share\/1GRwTL5KpS\/?mibextid=wwXIfr<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previously: GENESEE COUNTY\/Batavia\/Community Spotlight\/Recovery leads to a thriving business and giving back to the community \u2013 Video News Service<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Riann Nurmi is our Community Spotlight for February-Pictured-Riann at one of her favorite places to crochet. [Community Spotlight is a new monthly feature that will highlight those who make a difference in our communities each day. If you know of someone in your community who makes a difference each day, \u2026<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":72650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5560],"tags":[5644,5636],"class_list":["post-72649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-spotlight","tag-community-spotlight","tag-riann-nurmi"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8eTP4-iTL","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":74227,"url":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/2026\/04\/13\/batavia-pop-up-party-is-back-with-another-social-shopping-experience-and-do-it-yourself-fun-for-mothers-day-weekend\/","url_meta":{"origin":72649,"position":0},"title":"BATAVIA\/Pop-Up Party is back with another social shopping experience and do it yourself fun for Mother\u2019s Day Weekend","author":"aka","date":"April 13, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Press release On May 9, 2026, Pop-Up Party is back with another social shopping experience and DIY Fun for Mother\u2019s Day Weekend, from 10a.m. to 4p.m.\u00a0at 114 Liberty Street Batavia, NY. Lammy Teon Creations is proud to announce its upcoming Mother\u2019s Day Pop-Up Party, a unique community celebration designed to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "City of Batavia"","block_context":{"text":"City of Batavia","link":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/category\/city-of-batavia\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/new-vns.jpg?fit=1200%2C1117&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/new-vns.jpg?fit=1200%2C1117&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/new-vns.jpg?fit=1200%2C1117&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/new-vns.jpg?fit=1200%2C1117&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/new-vns.jpg?fit=1200%2C1117&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":32834,"url":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/2022\/05\/26\/leroy-police-report-may-26-2022\/","url_meta":{"origin":72649,"position":1},"title":"LEROY POLICE REPORT\/May 26, 2022","author":"aka","date":"May 26, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Riann Ledford, 27, of LeRoy, NY, is charged with harassment 2nd and criminal obstruction of breathing or blood circulation, after a domestic incident in LeRoy on May 24, 2022, at 6:00p.m. Ledford was arraigned in LeRoy Town Court and an order of protection was issued. Ledford was released on her\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "LeRoy"","block_context":{"text":"LeRoy","link":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/category\/leroy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Leroy-Police-badge.png?fit=480%2C480&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":80439,"url":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/2026\/09\/07\/wny-community-spotlight-a-passion-cannot-be-dimmed-by-debilitating-health-issue-with-no-diagnosis\/","url_meta":{"origin":72649,"position":2},"title":"WNY\/Community Spotlight\/A passion cannot be dimmed by debilitating health issue with no diagnosis","author":"aka","date":"September 7, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/JACW9C43U-w Video story with Sarah Callahan With the help of her husband Nick and son James, Sarah Callahan's determination to push forward despite health issues that started in 2021, has brought her back to the beginning. 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