As first-year students looked through the list of events to attend, many decided the Career and Community Engagement Center’s (CCEC) Craft for a Cause was worth attending.

On the first Saturday for new students, several filled the multipurpose room of the Ceddia Union Building to make crafts for non-profit organizations around the area.

The crafts included making scarves, blankets, chew toys for pets, cards for veterans as well as care packages for several different organizations.

This is the second year the CCEC has held Craft for a Cause, Victoria Kerr Buchbauer, director of the CCEC, said.

Buchbauer could be seen hopping between the different stations, making sure students understood how to do the different crafts and ensuring each station had enough supplies.

Buchbauer said she was the person who spearheaded the event last year, saying it was important for the students to give back to the community.

“Everyone loves crafting and giving back.” Buchbauer said.

Buchbauer said they made sure to ask the organizations what they needed, basing all crafts off of the different organizations’ needs.

Javita Thompson, assistant director for community engagement, said students need to get engaged in the community and that the CCEC was “excited” about the event.

Virginia Schaffer, a volunteer and member of the community, said she is “a townie and mother of a [Shippensburg University] graduate.”

Schaffer said that she donated old fleece she was not using last year and the CCEC invited her to come back.

Schaffer also said she made pies for her church for CornFest, but decided to help with Craft for a Cause because “this is more fun.”

Geoffrey and Linda Taylor, along with Sandie Mervine and Marie Stimson, were alumni who returned to help out with the event.

Buchbauer said the CCEC reached out to Alumni Affairs to see if any alumni would be interested in helping with the event.

The Taylors said they met in Shippensburg through mutual friends and Geoffrey said “the rest is history.”

Mervine and Stimson said they like to volunteer and the event “sounded fun.”

Mervine also said that it was “wonderful” to see the students coming together to make crafts for organizations in need.

One of the organizations the students were helping was Downtown Daily Bread, a soup kitchen located in Harrisburg. Cayla Salmon, a graduate assistant for the CCEC, said she has volunteered there before and interned at another homeless shelter this summer. She called the experience “eye-opening” and it made her want to help out at the Downtown Daily Bread station even more.

Sam Goven and Kadie Weaver, both part of the Orientation Team, said they wanted to be role models at events like this.

“[We want to] show new students helping can be fun and Ship cares,” Weaver said.

Olivia Pieklo and Alison Miller, both first-year students, said they enjoyed having the opportunity to craft and help the community.

The organizations served were Downtown Daily Bread, Cumberland Valley Animal Shelter, Women in Need, Christ United Methodist Church Clothing Bank and Breakfast, Lebanon VA Medical Center and American Red Cross. There were 598 crafts made in total.

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