Many students come to the Y-Serve refugee project to finish service hours required by their American Heritage or religion classes, but they stay for the friends they make.
Students work on kitchen mats made of recycled plastic bags, sew quilts and hand stitch throwing balls.
“The people that come here are all really awesome, and it’s a great place to make friends,” Sally Bradshaw, who transferred to BYU over the summer, said.
While Bradshaw needs the service hours, she said she also enjoys the projects.
“For American Heritage we have to do a service project. But like once we got here I was like, ‘If I had known that we were doing this, I totally would have come like, oh, last semester and stuff,'” Bradshaw said.
The Y-Serve refugee program is extending its reach beyond furnishing useful household items.
“We’re connecting online BYU students to these refugee families help the English tutoring with cultural things. So that’s a fun thing,” Garrett Wride said.
But Wednesday night activities remain a favorite as an opportunity to put crafting skills to good use.
“I really love stuff like sewing and embroidery and knitting. I’m not like amazing at it, but I think it’s really fun and it’s really cool to be able to use those skills in a way that helps other people,” Bradshaw said.
Lifting Hands International donates items students make and ships them to those in need.
