As Alachua County continues to experience cold snaps this winter, students at Eastside High School (EHS) are making sure those in need have the proper clothing to stay warm. 

Members of the EHS Crochet and Charity Club recently donated handmade scarves to the St. Francis House in Gainesville. The nonprofit organization provides resources and emergency shelter specifically for women and families with children experiencing homelessness.  

Club members chose St. Francis House as the recipient of their first crochet and charity project of the year. 

“Warmth is something that everyone deserves, right? Not everyone right now gets to experience warmth. So, we wanted to make something for our community to feel more warmth – externally and internally,” said Rachel Dai, a ninth grader at EHS, who also serves as the co-founder and vice president of the Crochet and Charity Club. 

Winny Wang, an EHS 10^th grader and co-founder and president of the Crochet and Charity Club, added to Dai’s comment. 

“We just started this club at the beginning of this school year,” Wang said. “We wanted to start our first project as something that we felt could impact the local community, and we also wanted to partner with an organization that kind of had that same mindset and the same giving-back-to-the-community type goal.”  

Wang said the club started the scarf project in late November, noting this was when they first introduced the idea and pattern. She said they had December and January to create the scarves, with the assembly process completed by the end of January.  

“It did take us a little while [to make the scarves],” Wang said. “It’s a very long scarf, and crochet just naturally, it takes a lot of time. People are also at different crochet levels. Some are beginners [while] some are a little bit more advanced.” 

In total, the club ended up making 13 scarves, Wang said. She noted that most of the members – there are 13 total – made a scarf. 

“Each scarf is different, and each scarf is unique,” she said, adding that they were able to have a variety of different styles, patterns and colors.  

Wang explained that members also used their different strengths to help each other in the crochet process.  

Charlotte Lillico, a 10^th grader at EHS, was one of the club members who participated in the scarf-making. She admitted that she was a little intimidated by the process, noting she had never done crochet before. However, knowing that she was making the scarf not for herself, but for someone else, encouraged her to keep going. 

“It took me a lot longer than most people, but especially during the holiday season, I thought it was really heartwarming,” she said.  

Wang said club members delivered the 13 scarves to St. Francis House earlier this month.  

In a phone interview with Mainstreet, Kia Herron-Sabi Goura, the volunteer coordinator at St. Francis House, said the donation of the scarves meant a lot to the organization, especially given how cold it has been recently. 

She noted that all 13 scarves had already been handed out to those in need. 

While it primarily acts as a shelter for women and families with children, St. Francis House also offers day services, in which hungry and homeless individuals in the community – known as “day guests” – can come in between 9 a.m.-noon daily “to access case management services, donations, meals, laundry facilities, the client phone and bathrooms,” according to the St. Francis House website.  

Additionally, if the temperature falls “below 45 degrees or there is a severe weather emergency (hurricane, tornado, etc.), the city of Gainesville will allow St. Francis House to open for Cold Night Shelter,” according to the St. Francis House website, in which an extra 60 clients can be accommodated.  

Because St. Francis House is mainly a shelter for families with children, all clients and guests are required to have a “blue card” (a police clearance card from the Gainesville Police Department) before receiving any services from the facility, according to the St. Francis House website. 

Dai said the project with St. Francis House was especially meaningful to them, given it was the club’s first donation.  

Wang said the idea for the Crochet and Charity Club started while she was in ninth grade and Dai was in eighth grade. 

Prior to the club launching, Wang said she and Dai were teaching crochet classes at a local Chinese school on the weekends.  

“We really enjoyed crochet, and then we also really enjoyed teaching other people how to crochet,” Wang said. “And we decided, ‘how can we bring this to our high school community?’ So, at the beginning of this year, when Rachel started here at Eastside, we were like, ‘let’s get this up and running.’” 

Wang and Dai outlined several benefits of crocheting, including how it can help with digital detox.  

“And also, I feel like crochet could improve attention span a little bit since you’re working on a project for so long,” Dai added, noting this could also help with digital detox.  

Wang said crocheting can also “foster creativity,” noting that it is a form of art.  

Wang and Dai, as well as the other 11 club members, are now using that creativity and art to make items that can be beneficial to the local community, such as the scarves. 

The club plans to continue to crochet needed supplies for the Gainesville community throughout the year. Right now, members are making capybara plushies for the UF Health Streetlight program. 

According to an EHS Crochet and Charity Club press release, “Streetlight supports adolescents and young adults with chronic illnesses. Volunteers provide peer companionship to help patients between the ages of 13 and 30 navigate their medical journey.”  

The idea for this project came from an act of kindness by Wang.  

“Rachel and I also do art on our own outside of school,” she said, adding they both like to paint and sell their art every year at the annual Gainesville Downtown Festival & Art Show and the Santa Fe Arts Festival. “Last year, I decided to donate all the profits I made from the art sale to the UF Health Streetlight program, because I want to use my art to give back to the community and also support people who are our age.”  

Wang said when she went to make her donation, she was able to meet the Streetlight director, Emily Marchi, and learn more about what the program does. Wang asked Marchi if they would be interested in having some crochet goods for patients. She was open to the idea, Wang said, noting the program takes these kinds of donations.  

Wang reached back out to Marchi after the club finished the St. Francis House project to see if they were still open to the idea. 

“She was like, ‘yeah, we would absolutely love that,’” Wang said.  

Dai said the project for Streetlight is “a little bit more difficult” than the one for St. Francis House. 

“Right now, a lot of our members are learning how to do these new techniques to make the capybara,” she said. “I think they’re doing pretty well.” 

Dai said the project will likely take one to two months to complete. 

Nick Anschultz is a Report for America corps member and writes about education for Mainstreet Daily News. This position is supported by local donations through the Community Catalyst for Local Journalism Fund at the Community Foundation of North Central Florida.