What started as an enjoyable hobby over the pandemic quickly turned into a lifelong passion for junior Kate Orr, who crochets almost every day. But, instead of handknit ducks and octopuses, Orr has been working on something different in the past few months: blankets, hats and scarves to donate. As a Girl Scout, Orr decided to pursue crocheting for her Girl Scout Gold Award project of helping people without housing stay warm in the winter.
To support this issue, Orr decided to combat the freezing temperatures by crocheting clothing items by hand for people in need. With a team of five assistants of Girl Scouts and classmates, she organized efforts to rally students and Girl Scouts together to teach people how to crochet and to collect their finished items. She connected with multiple Girl Scout troops and public libraries to host educational lessons on crocheting.
“Pennsylvania is known for being a very cold state. And whenever we go anywhere, I’m always like ‘Oh, there’s people that definitely need help’,” Orr said. “So, for my Gold Award, I really wanted to marry my interest with helping others. And when I thought about crocheting and what I can do through art, I just went, ‘Well a great way to infuse art and helping others would be through these means.’ So, I was like, ‘We can make things. I can do that. That’s how I’m going to help.’”
Orr’s project started in July 2023 with the Girl Scout Gold Award proposal process. She researched the impact of freezing temperatures on multiple aspects of life, such as the risk of hypothermia and breathing problems. She also learned that many unhoused people give up heating for other essentials like food or clean water, which strengthened her goal to provide warm clothing to the community. Orr received project approval in January 2025 and started looking for community partners to build her project.
Once crocheted items are completed, Orr collects them to donate to the Cecil and Grace Bean’s Soup Kitchen, a local nonprofit organization in Norristown that provides resources for unhoused people in need. Because of Pennsylvania’s cold temperatures, Orr felt that it was especially important to support people without access to indoor heating in the winter.
“The soup kitchen is also a shelter at night, I think they’ve been upgraded to a Code Blue shelter because the one around them closed,” Orr said. “So, they have a lot of people staying there at night or around the area, so a lot of these items will be handed out at night when people are sleeping there.”
Orr’s first crocheting lesson took place on May 22, where she and her team of assistants taught a Girl Scout troop basic crocheting skills. Many of the students initially struggled, but were able to make substantial progress on their crocheted hats.
In the future, Orr aims to continue working with Girl Scout troops and public libraries to host more classes on crocheting for young students. She plans to donate at least 20 crocheted items to the Cecil and Grace Bean’s Soup Kitchen with the help of students to fulfill her Gold Award project requirements.
“It (this project) just gives you another opportunity to help others in your spare time. If you have a second to spend and you can just get a row in, you can still be making a huge impact on someone’s life. And then giving a handmade gift to someone who is in hard times is a great way to give them some hope,” Orr said. “So, I felt it was a great way to uplift people.”
Mary Wolters can be reached at [email protected].
