Eastside High School Crochet and Charity Club donates handmade scarves to St. Francis House

Press release from Eastside High School Crochet and Charity Club

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The Eastside High School Crochet and Charity Club has donated handmade scarves to the St. Francis House. Club members selected the St. Francis House as the recipient of their first crochet and charity project of the year. The club plans to continue to crochet needed supplies for the Gainesville community throughout the year.

Founding president Winny Wang said the first stage of the project was to further develop high school students’ crochet techniques during weekly club meetings. The club chose to crochet scarves for the St. Francis House because “warmth is something that everyone deserves,” Wang said. “Each stitch represents time, care, and effort that we put in,” she explained. “At the end of the day, this is a collaboration between arts, creativity and love.”

Wang said the Eastside Crochet and Charity Club chose St. Francis House because it felt like a meaningful partnership. “Their mission aligns with ours,” Wang said. “We wanted to make our first project something that directly supports the people in our local community. St. Francis House is the type of organization that does this work every single day.”

The Crochet and Charity Club will partner with UF Health Streetlight next. Streetlight supports adolescents and young adults with chronic illnesses. Volunteers provide peer companionship to help patients between ages 13 and 30 navigate their medical journey. The Crochet and Charity Club is crocheting capybara plushies for Streetlight.

In 2024, Wang and founding vice president Rachel Dai started to teach children from ages 5 to 14 how to crochet at Huagen Chinese School. “We both really enjoyed that experience,” Dai said. “We decided to share that with our high school community.”