Fourteen Hugh Boyd secondary students in the crochet club made it their project of the year to crochet blankets for a local charity to help community members.
The students crocheted a total of 128 granny squares, creating eight blankets, which were then donated to Project Linus' Richmond chapter to distribute to the Youth Pregnancy and Parenting Program through Vancouver Coastal Health.
Macy Mercado, president of Hugh Boyd's crochet club, said the student club started in the 2023/2024 school year, where they crocheted a blanket for the school library.
After Mercado stepped into the role as president this year, when her friend and former club president graduated, she wanted to expand their project's goal to help the Richmond community and came across Project Linus accepting crochet-based volunteer work.
Project Linus is a national non-profit organization with 47 chapters across Canada that provides blankets to children going through a crisis in their lives, according to its website.
The Richmond chapter was formed in 2001 by a local high school student with permission from the Charles Shultz Foundation to use the Linus with his blanket logo.
It is now managed by Richmond's Gilmore Park United Church as part of its outreach committee projects. More than 25 quilters, knitters, crocheters and loomers meet regularly to make items like quilts, toques, baby hats and more.
"It was really exciting to see that there was a local opportunity where we could make something ... that totally matched with what we did last year, where we made blankets as a group," said Mercado.
She told the Richmond News that each student crocheted their squares and would bring a couple of them to the club every day or each week for a few other students to sew them all together to create 24-inch by 24-inch lap blankets
"This all took place on our own time because crocheting the squares takes a while. It takes each student around 40 minutes to make one square," said Mercado.
Some of the club's funds to purchase yarn were provided by the school, she added.
The student club will be losing Mercado as she is graduating, but it was decided the club will continue partnering with Project Linus next year.
"This is such a wonderful thing to be able to do, especially because a lot of the blanket-making was made on our own time. I hope this could be a thing that continues for a long time," she said.
"It's nice to have everyone's work come together, especially because crochet is such a taxing and time-consuming process for us, but to make something for someone who needs it shows everyone's love and care into each blanket."
Mercado thanks all her club members who took part in the project: Garielle Gabionza, Kosar Saffarzad, Alvin Lee, Bernice Wong, Juana Kaadan, Audrey Kan, Hannah Xin, Eron Tanurio, Xianne Amorer, Fynn Sargeant, Hana Higuchi, Lauren Bisaillon and next year's president, Cozette Shum.
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