Crochet club leads to high schoolers improving mental health

MANCHESTER, NH – At Central High School, students are crocheting – not just to do good, but also to feel good. Giving students a way to deal with social isolation while creating hats, scarves, and more to donate to the school’s Coat Closet is the goal of the Central Crochet Club, an effort spearheaded by Gold Award Girl Scout Katherine Thorner.

Thorner, 17, of Manchester, has earned the highest honor in Girl Scouting with her project, the Gold Award, open to Girl Scouts in Grades 9-12. She spent over 85 hours working to address students’ mental health at weekly club meetings after school where she taught participants how to crochet and encouraged them to share feelings and simply be with each other.

“I established a crochet art club at Manchester Central High School, which achieved two objectives,” Thorner said in her project report. “The first was to improve the perceived mental health of the students participating. I measured this by giving a small survey before and after each meeting to see how the mood of those in the club improved. After I analyzed my data, I found that my club had in fact decreased students’ perceived levels of anxiety and depression. This occurred not just from meeting to meeting, but throughout the scope of the year as well.”

The club also crocheted squares that were combined to make a blanket given to the family of a student who died that year. Over the year, as the members of the club became more proficient at crocheting, they made and donated hats, mittens, scarves and blankets to the school for those in need. She expects the number of donations to increase this school year now that they are becoming more experienced.

“It was really nice to see how all the kids were really excited about giving back to the school,” she said, “which was fantastic, and we were able to donate many items last year to my coat closet, which was a great start, I think, especially for the 1st year, because half to maybe a little over half of the club, did not know how to crochet in September, and they did in June, and we had to make sure that the projects we were giving to giving to the coat closet were uniform enough to be able to be handed out to families in need.”

Because she also wanted to focus on mental health, she asked participants to fill out anonymous surveys measuring their perceived level of stress.

“It turns out, after I graphed it in June, that the mental health, the scale for the stress level decreased. So it improved from not only September to June but week to week as well.”

Thorner was fortunate to receive almost $3,000 worth of donated yarn and crochet hooks, making it easier to get the club going.

Working on her Gold Award project, she said, taught her time management and leadership skills.

“I’m not very good at explaining things,” she said, “and I feel like I was able to gain a lot of confidence in that area because I taught these kids how to crochet, and I was able to witness their growth and witness their final project and product in June, which was really fulfilling, but also helped me gain confidence in the leadership and teaching areas as well.”

Thorner has been a Girl Scout from a young age, spurred on by her mother, who was also an accomplished Girl Scout.

“It was my sixth birthday,” she said. “My mom got me a Daisy uniform and said, ‘You’re going to be a Girl Scout’ because she was the last person in the country to get the First Class Award.”

Those who earned First Class in Girl Scouting are now considered Gold Award Girl Scouts.

Over her past 12 years as a Girl Scout, Thorner has enjoyed the friendship and many opportunities open to her, such as Girl Scout camp, including several years at the council’s overnight camp, Camp Farnsworth. She has also been the top cookie seller in her troop every year – at first to earn prizes like stuffed toys, and later to pay for camp and trips.

“We’ve done the New York trip a couple times on the bus, and so we used it for that,” she said. “We’ve used it for The Culinary Playground for cooking badges.”

Thorner is currently a senior at Central High School, where she is continuing the crochet club and encouraging younger students to carry it forward when she graduates. She is vice president of the National Honor Society and vice president of Tri-M, the music honor society, and was recognized with the Saint Anselm Book Award last spring. She also belongs to the National Art Honor Society and the National English Honor Society. As a vocalist, she took honors at the all-state competition for both jazz and classical performance. She is also a member of the Manchester Choral Society.

This accomplished young woman is applying to colleges currently, where she hopes to major in astronomy and minor in music.

Gold Award Girl Scouts don’t just change the world for the better, they change it for good. The Gold Award is earned by girls in grades 9–12 who demonstrate extraordinary leadership in developing sustainable solutions to local, national, and global challenges. Since 1912, Girl Scouts have answered the call to drive lasting, impactful change. They earn college scholarships, demonstrate high educational and career outcomes, and are active in their communities.

Katherine Thorner has answered the call to drive lasting, impactful change, and her Gold Award is a testament to her remarkable dedication to improving her community and the world.

About the Girl Scout Gold Award

• Gold Award Girl Scouts on average spend one to two years on their project.
• A Gold Award project must be sustainable after the girl’s involvement ends.
• The average age of Gold Award Girl Scouts is 17.
• Since 1916, more than 1 million girls have earned the Gold Award or its equivalent.
• Gold Award Girl Scouts are entitled to enlist at a higher pay grade when they join the military.
• University research indicates that noting you are a Gold Award Girl Scout on a college application is influential in the admissions decision-making process.
• Thirteen young women from New Hampshire and Vermont earned their Gold Award in the 2023-2024 membership year as part of Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains.
• The Girl Scout Gold Award is the mark of the truly remarkable.