Student-run groups are making a change by helping communities near and far. The Student Government Association (SGA), Knitting Club and Origami Club participants are using their strengths to create change around campus. The students worked to make a difference by initiating their philanthropic plans. 

SGA is hosting donation drives for the Ronald McDonald House, Knitting Club is helping keep children in South Africa warm with blankets and the Origami Club is folding paper cranes for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. 

 “We’re collecting pop tabs from soda cans and we’re going to donate those to the Ronald McDonald House,” Senior Class President Emily Klingenberg said. “They collect them, they recycle them, and then they get money from them.” 

In addition to collecting can tabs, Klingenberg and fellow SGA students are planning to do a Dec. food drive for holiday meal items at the Ronald McDonald House and make cards for the patients during lunch. Students can donate in room 8-216, of which all the money raised is sent directly to the Ronald McDonald House.

“The Ronald McDonald House is an organization that provides housing for families of children who are in hospitals so it’s all expenses paid, they’ll [the children] have all the meals there created for them, they’ll have toys and something they could play with,” Klingenberg said.

The Origami Club and many art classes are folding paper cranes throughout October for breast cancer awareness month. Origami Club President senior Quentin Voccia put his ideas to action.

“We’re making a thousand paper cranes with all the art classes this year,” Voccia said. “I’m in 3-D art so I just asked my teacher [Dr. Ashley Buxton] and she emailed all her colleagues and asked if they wanted to participate. It’s a Japanese tradition that if you make a thousand paper cranes it supposedly gives you a wish.”

Knitting Club President and senior Aubrey Dettman has plans to knit hand-made squares for the children of South Africa. Through the charity Knit-A-Square, the Knitting Club will be helping cold or vulnerable children in South Africa, one square at a time.

“What we do is we knit eight by eight inch squares and send then to charity in South Africa. They [Knit-A-Square] sew them all together and make them into blankets,” Dettman said. “Last year, we donated about 25 of them. This year, I want to start implementing harder projects more locally. [Advent Health] wants hats for cancer patients so we’re gonna try to do more in that variety.”