WVCSD Superintendent’s Spotlight: Crocheting for a Cause
The Warwick Valley High School Crochet Club is crocheting for a cause throughout the month of October, raising money for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Club members have been crocheting like crazy at a school and at home, building their inventory of customized scrunchies, key chains, and hearts. They will be selling the items next week outside the cafeteria during unit lunch, and a portion of their proceeds are going to The Pink Fund, which “provides financial support to breast cancer patients and their families… helping to meet basic needs, decrease stress levels, and allow [those] in active treatment to focus on healing while improving survivorship outcomes.” (pinkfund.org)
“The club was already going to do hearts for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and as the officers and I were talking, we decided to make it a fundraiser,” said club advisor and WVHS music teacher Elissa Maynard. “We found The Pink Fund, which is such a cool foundation. They give money to cancer patients for things they need when going through treatment, so they can just focus on getting better.”
The Pink Fund’s 90-day grant programs help breast cancer patients cover critical expenses like housing, transportation, utilities, and insurance while going through treatment. The Crochet Club will be splitting the proceeds of their fundraiser 50-50, giving half to the organization and earmarking the rest for replenishing their own supplies for future projects.
Crochet Club is one of the high school’s more than 40 extracurricular clubs and activities available to students. This year, the club is 20-plus members strong, which Ms. Maynard attributes to the hard work of its dedicated and enthusiastic officers in getting their peers hooked on the hobby.
“Felicia did such a fabulous job at the WVHS Club Fair back in September,” said Ms. Maynard. “She really got people jazzed up about crochet. So much so, that we’ve had a lot of students come in who didn’t even know how to crochet. Our first meeting, the whole room was filled. We definitely were not expecting that!”
The club’s officers, all dedicated and talented fiber artists, took the lead in teaching the eager loop noobs crochet basics like “beginnings,” “stitches,” and “chains.” The aforementioned Felicia Gambino is the club’s president, Sophie Quicke is vice president, Angelina Nguyen is its treasurer, and Aspen Torino-Margolis serves as secretary.
How many crochet newcomers were there to teach?
“Well, it was pretty much all of them,” Felicia laughed. “And lots of them learned really quickly.”
Club members are grateful for the support that their fundraiser has received from the Warwick community. Neighbors have been coming up big with generous supply donations. In fact, so much has poured in that the students are stitching in overdrive to use as much of it as possible before next week’s sale.
“Right now, we’ve had hundreds of hair ties donated for the students to customize for the cause; we have so much yarn, and it’s all community donated,” said Ms. Maynard. “To give you an idea of the community support we’ve received, it was just last Friday I put a post on Facebook saying, ‘My crochet club is in need of hair ties because we’re making scrunchies for breast cancer awareness.’ Next thing we know, we have over 500 hair ties, and bags of yarn!”
Ms. Maynard can’t say enough about the empathy, compassion, and charitable nature that her Crochet Club students have exhibited in conceptualizing and organizing this fundraiser, not to mention crocheting like crazy to make sure their inventory is ready to go.
“The kids in this club, they just have really big hearts. They’re all creative, so they’re always making something. But as soon as you add that element of giving, every one of them is like… make, make, make!” said Ms. Maynard. “Their love language is acts of service.”
Crochet Club also works with Beverly Braxton and Family Central, which provides Newborn Welcome Bags to every baby born at St. Anthony’s Hospital.
“Oh, we’ve made tons of blankets, and little hats,” Ms. Maynard said with a smile. “Beverly reached out and asked, ‘I don’t know if you have any blankets?’ I told her, oh we have blankets! The kids have been crocheting them at home, so she’s going to pick those up at the end of November.”
As a reward to students who undertake these kinds of charitable, civic-minded projects that reach beyond the walls and halls of WVHS, students can record community service hours for their efforts. All Warwick grads must accrue a specific number of community service hours to graduate, a requirement that reflects the traits of the district’s Portrait of a Graduate, specifically being a Global & Ethical Citizen.
On Friday, October 25, the high school will be having Pink Out Day, when students are encouraged to wear pink to raise awareness of breast cancer and show support for those affected by it. The Crochet Club will be selling their wares all week, so students can sport their bespoke pink creations on Friday.
“That’s our goal, we’re going to sell them Monday through Thursday so everybody can have them to pink out on Friday,” said Ms. Maynard. “We’re going to set up our table outside the cafeteria during unit lunch every day.”
Help support the Crochet Club’s charitable efforts. Stop by the table and buy something!
- Scrunchies: $3.00 each, or 2 for $5.00
- Keychains: $2.00
- Hearts: $1.00
Are you a Warwick community member who wants to support the Crochet Club? You can buy something, you can make supply donations year-round, or even sell Crochet Club Crafts at your local business! Just contact Ms. Maynard through the high school.