Anthony Gaskins knows people.

In particular, he knows the look of someone fighting cancer and experiencing chemo. “I have spent a lot of time in chemo wards,” he explained with a heavy sigh as he recalled losing both parents and a sister to cancer within a few months of each other in 2012. Now, when he spots a person with that look, he offers them a hug and a hat.

Anthony also knows hats. He grew up in a family well connected in the fashion industry, and by age 20, when he approached the owner of the Hattery in Georgetown Park Mall with a critique of the store’s inventory, the owner hired him on the spot, as the store buyer and manager, a position Anthony held for decades. Eventually, John, the store owner was dying of cancer and he left the store to Anthony. Anthony recalled John saying, “This is your calling and I want you to keep it going.”

And Anthony did keep the business going for another 15 years until a new company bought the mall “and everyone had to move out,” he said.  

Far from being discouraged, however, Anthony took it as a sign. “The two best days of my life so far,” he said, “have been the day I was born and the day I realized why God put me on this earth - to encourage people fighting cancer.” And that’s when he merged the part of him that knows people and the part of him that knows hats into his new initiative, called Hugs and  Hats, to use hats to help cancer patients. “Because I knew exactly what they were going through,” he said.

“Every hat,” he said, “has its own personality. Hats let people display their culture and their style.”  

For cancer patients, a hat means even more. “Words can’t describe how it feels to give someone fighting cancer a hat,” Anthony explained, and added, “To put them in something that totally transforms their whole mindset and how they feel about the sickness that they have and that they are fighting. So, I decided to start teaching classes to chemo patients young and old. You come into my class. It doesn’t cost you anything. Before you walk out, you’re going to have a one-of-a-kind of piece that you made yourself, that I hope will give you strength in your fighting.”

Anthony taught a few hat-making classes at the Smithsonian Castle and at a homeless shelter. There were some cancer survivors in each class. “That’s where the idea came from to start teaching patients and family members,” he said. He reached out to universities, hospitals, churches, homeless shelters and more, and they were enthusiastic about the idea, but soon, Covid changed everything.  

At the classes, sometimes Anthony brought “raw hats” and embellishments for people to personalize the hats. Other times, he’d teach a two-day class that involved forming the hat, as well as embellishing. Initially, he paid for the materials himself.

Covid also meant the temporary closing of a Logan Circle booth where Anthony had been selling his personal hat creations.

Whatever hat he’s wearing, he remains on the lookout for cancer patients and when he spots someone who looks like they could benefit from a hat, The Hat Man will always have one ready.

(originally published by Lauri Gross in Potomac Lifestyle)