Knit For Needs supports community through shelter donations

Graphic by Emily Wu

The club plans to donate projects made by members to homeless shelters and hospitals, helping the community while also spreading the art of knitting.

Due to their strong interest in knitting, juniors Shreya Raghuvanshi, Aadya Naveen, Anika Ramakrishnan and Meha Sekaran founded the new Knits for Need club to spread the craft across school. 

The club plans to donate its creations — including hats, scarves and other items of clothing — to charities like Warm Up America, which distributes these items to struggling families and the homeless. They also plan to knit and donate baby beanies to Newborns in Need, an organization that provides lower-income families with essential resources like infant clothing, diapers and baby wipes.

Naveen, the co-president along with Raghuvanshi, proposed the idea of donating knitted creations as she has been knitting for over five years and began donating her creations to the National Charity League during the pandemic.

“It felt great that something I made could help others in need,” Naveen said. “We thought it would make a great impact to involve our school with the community through knitting by donating the products to charity.”

Meetings are held on blue Thursdays during tutorial in English teacher and club adviser Mary Palisoul’s room. At the start of the year, meetings will focus on teaching the basics of knitting. As members hone their skills, they will gain creative freedom to knit whatever they think will be helpful for donation.

Originally, the club officers planned to teach only knitting, but after meeting the 13 members in their introductory meeting, they have also decided to include crocheting since many have expressed interest in it. Crocheting uses only one hook to manipulate yarn rather than two needles used in knitting. According to Naveen, obtaining knitting and crocheting materials such as yarn and needles for members poses a challenge for the officers, as they are relatively unsure of the number of consistent members they will have in the future and wish to buy their materials in a non-wasteful manner.

Raguvashani hopes the club will continue to increase its membership and promote joy in knitting. 

“People don’t get involved in helping the community as much as they should,” Raguvashani said. “Knits for Need is a great opportunity for students to do this while also exploring a new hobby.”