Looking for a new club? Prior Lake High School offers a wide variety of clubs, and this year a brand new one, Crafts of Comfort, has been added to the list.
Nary Sophea and Mary Sophea co-founded at the start of the 2023-2024 school year with help from their friends Anise Izumani, Esther Rincon, and Veronica Cruz. Currently, those friends of the co-founders are the board members. Crafts of Comfort’s board members must exhibit efficiency, responsibility, leadership, dedication, strong communication, and optimism.
There were several reasons for the creation of this club. First was a shared goal of bringing people together while giving back to the community by creating and donating carefully made crafts.
Currently, Crafts of Comfort donates to St. Francis Regional Medical Center. In the future, they also hope to donate to local nonprofits, veterans homes, places of worship, and other hospitals.
So far, the club has distributed over 50 origami projects to staff and patients at St. Francis’s Medical Center after their creation during one of the club meetings. Later, the club plans to make and give out crochet hats to newborn babies in the pediatric section of St. Francis.
Although giving away creations is encouraged, the club doesn’t require that all crafts be donated. If members would like to keep certain projects, they are permitted to do so.
Along with newborn hats, the club plans to create crochet projects such as socks, baby blankets, mittens, and granny squares. As for origami, future crafts include cranes, frogs, butterflies, pigs, and more.
Due to their numerous options of crafts to work on, the club has to go through a process to decide what will be worked on during each meeting.
First, board members think through possible difficulties like where the necessary materials will come from. Materials that have been used so far are supplies the board members have brought from home and contributions from Hana Ko of The Yarn Group. Because getting funds for supplies is difficult, members have been encouraged to bring in extra crochet materials like yarn, hooks, and scissors. Eventually, Crafts of Comfort hopes to ask local shops for donations as well.
Another step used to decide what to work on during meetings is determining how members will be taught. Meetings are typically self-paced due to varying skill levels. Resources such as online videos are offered so that members can use them to work at a comfortable pace. Following along is made easy because of the pause feature that gives everyone the ability to stop and practice until the skill feels natural. After gaining confidence, they can unpause their video and finish the rest of it. Helpers are also constantly circulating the room, working to provide different tables with desired demonstrations and answers to questions.
After looking over their list of projects that will hopefully be completed by the end of the school year, hashing out details about gathering supplies, discussing availability, and figuring out how the craft will be taught, board members decide the best course of action!
Since Crafts of Comfort is a newer club, they have recently faced the difficulties of struggling to find a consistent meeting location and dealing with the frustrating first few days of teaching beginners how to crochet. Since crocheting is a patient and difficult craft, sometimes it can get frustrating. Board members, also known as helpers, acknowledged that the first few days of learning would be hard, and they worked to encourage everyone that it would get easier with practice. Eventually, many club members got through to the stage they were supposed to.
Crafts of Comfort Club as a whole has had fun working with friends to create projects, learn new hobbies, try to bring joy to others and earn volunteer hours during meetings.
The club is not overly structured. Although members are encouraged to show up on time and to as many meetings as possible, they are not penalized for missing meetings, being late, or needing to leave early. By doing this, many people can join when their schedule permits.
If you are interested, make sure to join Crafts of Comfort! Currently, the club is hosting meetings from 3:15-4:00 every other Monday in room F211.
