Grandmas were not the only people to bust out their knitting needles today.
The Union Programming Council offered free knitting lessons in the Union Den on Wednesday to help support Click for Babies, an organization that helps raise awareness of Shaken Baby Syndrome.
“We were looking for new things to do for the Arts and Special Events Board, and we noticed there are a lot of knitting things around Salt Lake. So we thought, ‘Why don’t we learn how to knit and make it a community service project as well?’ So we’re learning to knit, and we’re donating our hats to Click for Babies for awareness about abnormal and normal crying in babies to avoid Shaken Baby Syndrome,” said Mary Neville, the director of Arts and Special Events for UPC and a junior in math.
UPC found the knitting instructors, Shauna Montanz and Jan Ley, through UPC staff advisor Ashlee Christofferson. The knitting instructors recommended that UPC donate the hats to Click for Babies.
“It’s a local volunteer project based in Farmington, Utah. They collect all the hats and distribute the purple hats to hospitals in the Salt Lake Valley in November to newborn babies,” Montanz said.
The event has been several months in the making.
“We started planning it during the summer and put it together throughout the semester,” said Neville.
Click for Babies collected 65,000 knitted hats nationwide and 3,500 from the state of Utah in 2012. So far this year, Click for Babies has collected 1,700 hats from Utah. They hope to collect 3,300 by the main event in November but say September and October yield the most donations from around the state. According to the organization’s website, Click for Babies has collected 120,000 hats since its first year in 2011.
Students who attended the event said they enjoyed learning how to knit, but the real benefit was being able to help babies in ways other than donating money.
“I think it’s really cool, because sometimes you just go out and raise money, but here you actually get to make the hats. Plus purple is a really cool color. I haven’t knitted before, so that was cool, and I definitely think I’ll come back if they host another one,” said Lily Wetterline, a freshman in art.
UPC hoped that between five and 25 people would attend the event. Neville said that since 21 people attended, UPC will plan on hosting more knitting days throughout the semester to help Click for Babies. UPC will announce the dates for the knitting events soon.
“We are hoping to host a knitting day every couple of weeks, but that’s not official. We’re hoping that people will get behind this initiative and make hats on their own and make a real difference,” Neville said.