For one hour every Sunday night, Pavilion VIII becomes home to a group of students striving to warm up America. Warm Up America! is a national organization of volunteers working together to create blankets, clothing and accessories to help those in need. The University chapter was started just last semester by second-year College student Julia Duncan, now president of the chapter here.
"We knit patches that are then compiled into afghans that are sent to a whole range of places -- battered women shelters, hospitals, homeless shelters -- places that otherwise wouldn't be able to afford nice blankets," Duncan said.
She said the group generally works on these patches at their weekly meetings. They then send the patches off to the national organization where the patches are assembled into blankets.
"We've actually taught a lot of people to knit and to crochet," Duncan said. "We started with five or six members the first semester and now it's between 45 and 50. We've expanded a lot. Watching it grow has been really fun."
As the organization grows in number, the University's chapter of Warm Up America! hopes to expand in terms of what the organization does as well.
"We're hoping to begin to assemble some of those blankets ourselves to distribute them in the Charlottesville area," Duncan said.
Such expansion requires more fundraising, and the University chapter is working to ensure they have the money they need.
"We have a fundraising coordinator, [and] so far, we've had a bake sale," Duncan said. "A lot of our members have provided their own yarn, which has been really helpful, [but] funds will help us purchase yarn [as a group] so the blankets are more cohesive, [allowing us to] put them together and distribute them in the area."
Members of Warm Up America! said they find the experience brings rewards even beyond the knowledge that they are helping those in need.
"The community service aspect -- the giving back part -- is the most important, but it's a perk that you get to hang out with people with a similar interest," said Julie Delaney, a second-year Engineering student, and treasurer of the University's chapter. "We're friends, and we get together once a week and hang out and knit and talk. I've been knitting for a while, but I never had an outlet to do it with other people. I get to [take part in a] hobby that I enjoy and use as a way to relax and be able to meet new people through it as well. The camaraderie is nice."
Second-year Engineering student Vanessa Furman, vice president of the University's chapter, also mentioned the benefits of the social aspect of Warm Up America!.
"We just get to take a break and relax on Sunday nights, in the middle of frantically studying, to do something we feel is productive and helps people," Furman said.
Duncan agreed.
"It's just really fun," Duncan said. "And it's a minimal time commitment -- an hour a week, and everyone's working for the same cause, doing the same thing. You can get a lot out of it"
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