The university welcomed the Ole Miss Knitting Club to campus last week, whose members don’t knit regular hats, scarves or blankets.
The club spends its meetings knitting hats for premature babies at Batson Children’s Hospital in Jackson. They held their second meeting Thursday night.
The club’s vice president, Maggie McDonnell, said she had the idea to form a knitting club, but club president Sadie Rich decided the group should knit for a cause after she learned about a high school friend’s knitting project involving making clothes for patients at a children’s hospital.
Vice President of the knitting club Maggie McDonnell. Photo courtesy Maggie McDonnell
“We just saw a need for that here at Ole Miss, especially in northwest Mississippi,” Rich said.
McDonnell first found her passion for knitting in high school. She said she’s enjoyed teaching others how to knit since her sorority sisters saw her knitting a blanket one day and asked her if she could teach them.
“During our work week for recruitment we had a lot of downtime, and people kept asking me about like, ‘Oh how do you know how to knit?’” McDonnell said. “So, I thought of starting a knitting club, and Sadie had the idea to make it more philanthropic.”
Ole Miss RebelTHON also raises money for Batson Children’s Hospital in Jackson, so the knitting club is just another way the university is philanthropically connected to the hospital.
Member dues for the club are $15 a semester, which covers all knitting supplies. Any leftover funds will be donated to the hospital’s neonatal unit, according to Rich. The club hopes to be granted funding from the Associated Student Body in the future.
There are 22 members in the club currently. Rich and McDonnell hope more students will learn about the club and its purpose and want to join.
“In order for you to join you do not need to know how to knit,” Rich said. “I’d love to get everyone on the same page and get this club rolling.”
Sophomore special education major Michaela Griffin said she joined the club because of the its goal to serve a community beyond the university and Oxford. She also wanted to learn a new skill.
“I wanted to join knitting club because I thought it would be really cool to give back to the community in a different way,” Griffin said. “I don’t know how to knit, so learning how to knit and do that also is really cool.”
Rich said she will deliver at least 50 hats to the hospital during Thanksgiving break. The club hopes these hats will be a sentimental item to the babies and their families for years to come.
The club meets weekly on Thursdays at 7 p.m., in Bryant Hall. Those interested in joining the club can sign up online through MSync.
