Lee University students pose with residents of North Cleveland Towers who also participated in the knit-ins.
From left are Polly Rector, Kathryn Simmons, Elizabeth Young, Lisa Gjerde, Jenna Back, Dorothy Rice, Miranda Turpin. Click to enlarge.
Lee Students Knit For Warm Up America Foundation
Lee University's first-year transfer students along with residents from Tharp Hall, other students and staff in the Lee University community and volunteers from the North Cleveland Towers participated in "knit-ins" in an effort to produce blankets, hats and other items for donation to needy facilities in the area.
Participants donated more than 30 baby hats and two baby blankets to New Hope Pregnancy Center; two fleece blankets to the local emergency shelter; and are in the process of joining more than 100 donated 7' x 9" squares into more blankets for the Bradley-Cleveland Community Services Agency. They also made 38 sets of scarves and gloves for urban children in Chattanooga and Knoxville.
The "knit-ins," held throughout the fall semester on the university's campus, were in participation with the Warm Up America Foundation which seeks to "provide warmth and comfort to people who have lost their homes, fled abusive relationships, or are being cared for in hospices, shelters, hospitals, and nursing home."
The gifts were presented in a December reception hosted for the recipients. Guests included: Yaunna Higgins, director of the New Hope Pregnancy Center; Harry Johnson, executive director of Bradley-Cleveland Community Services Agency; Jackie Sturdivant and Jessica Adkins from Knoxville and Jessica Riner from Chattanooga; Summer Mungle, consultant from Michael's Arts and Crafts, Chattanooga; Dorothy Rice and Kathy Haist, North Cleveland Towers.
Last year, Lee donated two blankets to Warm Up America and donated two baby hats to New Hope, two class sets of scarves and gloves to the students in Chattanooga and Knoxville and six small fleece blankets Backyard Ministries.
Lee University Assistant Director for First-Year Programs, Kathryn Simmons said that, "The Warm-Up America project is a really great way to connect first-year students to the significant threads that make up the fabric of the Lee University experience: that of using talents and strengths in service to others. It has also provided the venue for connecting new transfer students to each other and to others in the Lee University and Bradley/Cleveland Community."
Supplies for the knit-ins were donated by Denise Roebuck of the Baptist Collegiate Ministry, Polly Rector, Dorothy Rice and parents and grandparents of students.
Students will be gathering again for a knit-in on Jan. 17, at 6 p.m. to complete the joining of squares into blankets for this year's service project. For more information contact Kathryn Simmons in the Office of First-Year Programs 614-8620 or transitions@leeuniversity.edu.