Last year, two women with a vision decided to aid non-profit organizations while doing something they love. These women founded the University Student Fibers Guild. The USFG is a campus organization that knits items such as blankets and hats to donate to non-profit groups.
Although the organization officially began last year, the still-growing guild is just beginning to knit for charitable causes. This year, the USFG is planning to knit an afghan for Womenspace, a women’s shelter, along with 15 premature baby hats for the March of Dimes. “This way we could raise awareness for the shelter and encourage
volunteering on campus, while
sticking to our talents,” said Sara Asher Morris, co-founder and co-president of USFG.
The March of Dimes, established in 1938 by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, originally fought against polio. After a cure for polio was found, the organization switched its attention to aid premature babies. The March of Dimes offers advice for expectant parents and funds genetic research.
“Premature babies affect 460,000 families annually. It is the number one cause of newborn death in this country and nearly half the cases of premature birth happen for unknown reasons,” said Aimee Knabe, the Southern Oregon division director for the March of Dimes.
“Preemie babies are born so tiny that normal clothes don’t fit them,” Morris said.
Knabe said the hats for preemie babies will stay in this area. They will be given to the local Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
The USFG has a number of events planned this year to get students involved and to raise awareness for its causes, including three more volunteer workshops this term in the EMU. At these workshops, volunteers will get free lessons on how to knit and crochet. All volunteers will be asked to donate a 6-by-6 inch square for the afghan that will go to Womenspace.
“We plan to teach whoever is interested how to knit,” said USFG Co-founder and Co-president Yvonne Ellsworth. “The project we are planning is that they knit one 6-by-6 inch square for the afghan and one for themselves.”
These volunteer workshops will be held on Oct. 31, Nov. 7 and Nov. 21. Each of the workshops will take place on a Sunday and will last from 2 to 4 p.m. in the Ben Linder Room in the EMU.
The USFG also plans to teach students to knit through Spin-Out Days. The group will use a booth in the EMU to teach passersby knitting techniques. The Guild provides all the supplies necessary, and bystanders who partake in the knitting will learn how to spin, knit and weave at no cost. The Guild has one Spin-Out Day scheduled for Friday, Nov. 5.
Morris and Ellsworth founded the USFG after the two were in a class together. Both had been involved with guilds before and decided to start their own that was affiliated with the University.
“I wanted to get other enthusiasts together, because it’s so much more fun to work in a group, and I really wanted to try and get something done with a student organization,” Morris said. “I have done volunteer work since I was a child and love the fact that fiber arts can be applied to volunteering in so many ways.”
Membership in the Guild costs five dollars a term, and includes a reduced workshop fee, the ability to attend Guild field trips and a dual membership to the Association of Northwest Weavers’ Guilds.

Cassie DeFillipo is a freelance reporter for the Daily Emerald