Mitchell Fox | Dec. 8, 2021 (Originally written Nov. 25, 2021)
A teenager from Mississauga, Ont., is combining her hobby of crocheting with her passion to help those in need in a project bringing youth together to provide an Indigenous community with winter accessories.
14-year-old Bailey Clyne, a member of the Métis community, has started a project to crochet winter hats to be sent to an Indigenous community in northern Ontario. Bailey and her mother Marnie explained in a Zoom interview that Bailey teaches other youth to crochet the hats over weekly virtual meetings. They will be packaged with a note and mittens and sent north in January.
The project currently has 21 youth participants from across Ontario, Manitoba and Nova Scotia.
Marnie says Bailey came up with the idea after being taught to crochet by her grandmother during the pandemic.
“She kind of took off from there and started making hats and just really enjoying making hats,” she said.
The project received a grant from the We Matter campaign #IndigenousYouthRise COVID-19 Support Fund, which, according to their website, grants up to $1,500 to Indigenous youth-led projects aiming to support Indigenous youth or communities.
According to the We Matter Annual Impact Report for April 2020-May 2021, three rounds of the Support Fund run in 2020 combined to provide $36,990.42 in funding to 113 applicants across various provinces.
We Matter grants coordinator Nitanis Vandale explained that the goal of the Support Fund, which began during the COVID-19 pandemic, is to support Indigenous youth and their communities and to do so through other Indigenous youth.
“We’re trying to tackle a lot of things at once,” she said in a phone interview. “To help them engage with their culture, engage with other youth, help them feel their community, help them to feel supported.”
Vandale says the pandemic, as well as other “disasters” over the years, has made this an important effort.
“A lot of people, not just youth, are feeling very isolated,” she said. “So hopefully by doing this grant, we can give them the benefits and the motivation to reach out that hand, to feel less isolated, to feel less alone.”
Bailey, who also does language classes and cultural programs, takes helping Indigenous communities close to heart.
“I know in some of the reserves, they don’t have clean water. There’s lots of issues. And further up north, everything’s really expensive,” she said. “So I wanted to help as much as I could.”
So, she says, learning of the grant inspired her to put her hobby to use.
“We thought it’d be a good opportunity for me to share what I’ve been learning about crochet, but then also giving back to others,” she said.
Vandale said she remembered Bailey and was glad to hear the project was going well.
“It’s one of the things that we really like to see,” she said of “care packages” like Bailey’s.
Vandale expressed that it is important for Indigenous youth to be involved in these projects.
“While we do our best, having that support within your community from other youth is one of the best places for it, I feel,” she said.
The Clynes explained, however, that their project is extending beyond youth, as adults in the community have expressed an interest in helping out, including by providing yarn or mittens or knitting hats.
Marnie says this is due in part to Bailey’s “big cheerleader”, her grandmother, who taught her to crochet and has been making hats herself.
“She told everyone,” Bailey said.
The Clynes’ goal is to have 60 hats and packages made by the end of the project, though Bailey is optimistic.
“I’m hoping to get more,” she said.
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