The Women’s Center at Shippensburg University has brought the Craft Café back for a second year.
Students began to show up around 6 p.m. Wednesday to show off their creative do-it-yourself (DIY) skills at McFeely’s Coffeehouse.
In order to participate, students either had to donate at least $3 or feminine products.
The donations included items such as new and unused bras, as well as unopened boxes of pads, tampons or pantiliners.
When students made their donations they received raffle tickets.
Students with raffle tickets had the chance to win a mason jar full of Skittles, or they could win two tickets to the Vagina Monologues.
All of the donations were given to a cause called “Distributing Dignity.”
This cause gives feminine products to women who suffer from insecure housing.
Chelsea Ksanznak is a graduate assistant for the Women’s Center who helped put the event together.
She was also responsible for putting the event together last year.
Craft Café was sponsored by The Rape Educators and Contacts (REACT), The Vagina Monologues, Feminists Raising Empowerment Equality (FREE) and the Career and Community Engagement Center (CCEC). At Craft Café, there were several tables with different types of DIY activities for students to do.
FREE, the campus feminist organization, hosted a table that was specifically created for making bowls out of buttons and rolls of yarn.
Students were able to achieve this by blowing up a balloon and gluing the buttons or yarn to it. Then the balloon would be removed and its final product would be a yarn or button bowl.
REACT, a program that supports sexual assault victims and spreads education about the issue, had a table for making tea light snowmen.
Tea lights were provided, along with cotton balls, glue, pipe cleaners, googly eyes and ribbon to be used as supplies to make the Christmas decoration.
One of the tables was also available for people to make cards for women in need, or just to create whatever craft they felt like making. There were materials such as scissors and letter stickers, along with an entire assortment of markers.
There was also a section where students could put blankets together. Students could take two separate pieces of blanket material and tie them together to make a tie-blanket.
“My favorite part of the Craft Café is seeing people come together to make a difference,” Ksanznak said. “I think the Craft Café is a fun way to spread awareness and help those in need.”
To accommodate students, there was a table full of assorted cookies and coffee.
Craft Café made at least $20 in donations and received a plentiful amount of female necessities to donate to its cause.
The Slate welcomes thoughtful discussion on all of our stories, but please keep comments civil and on-topic. Read our full guidelines here.