Winding Creek Bro-chet Club Makes Beanies for Newborns

by JonDavid Peak, UCO Intern

Studies have shown that elementary-aged students have limited opportunities for meaningful peer-to-peer interactions. Winding Creek Elementary started a new, engaging program that gets fifth and sixth grade boys to create gifts of love for newborn babies. Through the school’s Bro-chet Club, these young men are crocheting beanies for premature babies at Norman Regional Hospital while developing social skills at the same time. 

The idea for the club came from Winding Creek Principal Kristi McMurtry in the fall of 2023. Soon after, the students began to meet. Through contributions from staff and Winding Creek Counselor Megan Livsey, Mental Health Therapist Katy Creecy, Board Certified Behavior Analyst Amanda Bowers, Sixth Grade Math Teacher Chris Sutterfield and parent volunteer Debbie Rucker, the club took off and the young men started learning the art of crochet. 

After a crash course in crochet from Rucker, the students' skills quickly began developing throughout the semester. Creecy explained the students gained much more out of the club than just their new-found talents. 

We thought we would start the Bro-chet Club as a way for them to learn a new skill, but it turned into a catalyst to bring them together. - Katy Creecy, MPS Mental Health Therapist

In an article for the Institute of Family Studies, Phillip Zimbardo and Nikita Coulombe note, “Since 1980, there has been a 71% increase in the number of boys who say they don’t like school. One reason for this is because the average boy is not as socially and verbally mature as the average girl yet is more physically active. 

“Boys also tend to learn best with hands-on learning activities, and schools don’t offer enough opportunities to manipulate actual things.”

Not only does the Bro-chet Club encourage social interaction between the boys, but it also allows them to exchange ideas and solve problems together while giving back to the community through a meaningful volunteer project.

“I believe the boys enjoyed having a specific goal to work toward and I feel it did benefit our students. There were moments where I saw students who generally get frustrated and quit things easily work so hard to learn this new skill and laugh off mistakes made along the way,” said Livsey. 

McMurty agreed saying the team thought the donations would give the club a purpose outside of school and help the boys know they’re positively helping others.

According to an online article from Pampers, headwear is especially important for premature babies’ health because of their inability to regulate their body temperature. In June, Livsey took the students’ newly crocheted beanies and donated them to Norman Regional Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. 

Through this innovative Bro-chet Club, now premature babies at Norman Regional Hospital stay warm while MPS elementary students learn how to interact and volunteer on a unique level.

Learn more about Winding Creek by clicking here.