Sheryl Ryan, left, who is in her fifth year post-baccalaureate, and Denise Miller, who is getting a master’s in teaching at Pacific University, knit in the LGBTQA office Monday night for kids with AIDS.
Manisse is an athletic girl who most people don’t recognize as athletic.
Her camp counselor, University sociology student Crystal Cathcart, did, and she collected a football to give her for the holidays. She knew it would hit home for the girl.
“I think it’ll be good for someone to recognize she’s talented,” Cathcart said. “She kind of gets pushed aside a lot because she’s a girl.”
Manisse is one of 15 11- to 13-year-old girls Cathcart is collecting gifts for this holiday season. Cathcart — who is a counselor at Camp AmeriKids — a New York-based camp for children who are affected by or infected with HIV/AIDS — is one of many counselors collecting presents to give to the children in December. But hers are different, she said. Her gifts are personalized, and after enlisting the help of other University students, many of hers will be handmade.
| Taking Action For more information on donating gifts for LGBTQA Co-director Crystal Cathcart’s gift drive or to join ‘Stitch and Bitch,’ contact Cathcart at 346-3360. |
Tonight in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer Alliance office in the basement of the EMU, nearly a dozen University students will knit scarves for the kids. At the ‘Stitch and Bitch’ gathering, some members will learn to knit and others will perfect their art, but all will be knitting gifts for disadvantaged kids they’ll never meet.
For Denise Miller, a student at Pacific University, and Sheryl Ryan, a University anthropology student, it’s mostly about the charity and a little about the socializing.
“We started it because both of us really liked helping out people in need,” Miller said.
The two women hatched the idea for the group after learning that Cathcart, who is a co-director of the LGBTQA, was collecting toys from members of the LGBT community.
“We thought it’d be fun to give kids something personal…,” Miller said.
“…that somebody actually worked on,” Ryan said, finishing Miller’s sentence.
Cathcart said she’s already collected sports equipment, a CD player, a jewelry-making kit, arts and crafts kits and Klutz books, a brand of activity books that include craft kits.
Cathcart said she thinks the children will be thrilled to get her gifts because they are personalized.
“They’ll get better gifts; people in here are being very generous,” she said.
One of those kids, Shinekwa, will be receiving a book of Zen. The book will be a good present for Shinekwa because she’s Buddhist, Cathcart said. At least she was Buddhist over the summer; Cathcart admits she’s not sure she still is.
Many of the gifts will come from the ‘Stitch and Bitch’ group, which meets for about two hours, at 8 p.m. on Mondays. Tonight’s meeting will be the third meeting for the group and the last meeting before the gifts are mailed on Wednesday.
But the meeting won’t be the last for the group. Participants have had so much fun, they’ve decided to keep the group after the holiday season.
Ryan said it will become a drop-in gathering where people can socialize or learn how to knit.
“As for coming here late at night, it’s a way to hook up with friends after a long day,” Miller said. “It’s a way to take a break. That way we don’t have to be studying all of the time.”
