A new club on campus is using its members’ knitting skills to serve others.

Junior French major Cassandra Mech founded Hooked on Helping: Club for Knitters this semester. The purpose of the club is to knit for a different charity each month.

“I’ve always really enjoyed charity work and this is the best way for me to do it because I don’t have a lot of time,” she says.

The idea for the club grew out of her love for knitting and passion for helping others, she said. The first service project is Knit a Square, with volunteers knitting an eight-inch square to create a blanket for orphaned infants in Africa suffering from AIDS.

Mech says she was hesitant about starting the club because she did not know if the group would be successful, but was pleasantly surprised by the turnout at the first few meetings. By mid-semester, the group had grown to 16 members.

Junior anthropology major Carolanne Appedole says she joined because she wanted to learn to knit and support Mech. It has also given her a reason to knit.

“I like knitting. I just don’t need everything I knit, and I like the idea of being able to give it [away],” she says.