Launching a club at Quinnipiac can be scary for students. They must garner interest, go through the application process and then wait for the university to approve. After that, it’s the student that has to search for funds to keep their passion project up and running.
One of Quinnipiac’s newest clubs, Crafting at QU, is getting a head start by hosting a series of book sales to raise money for future craft projects.
“There wasn’t a crafting club at Quinnipiac, so we wanted to make that happen,” said Emma Thomas, a senior sociology major and the club’s co-president. “We do fun crafts for everyone. We take suggestions on topics, it’s your club. We want to do what you guys want.”
Thomas and the rest of the executive board founded the club last semester. While membership was growing, funding remained a challenge. The start of the sale was slow, with members setting up as students passed by. Within minutes, however, students began stopping at the table to browse.
“I got the Colleen Hoover book ‘November 9,’ and it was only $9,” said Giuliana Frutano, a first-year nursing major. “I’ve read a couple of her books, and I thought it would be a good read.”
This is the second book sale Crafting at QU has hosted. After the first proved successful, the club decided to continue with the model.
The idea originated with Briana Morris, a senior psychology major and the club’s other co-president, who saw an opportunity to turn her love of reading into funding.
“We all really love to read,” Morris said. “I had pounds and pounds of these books sitting on my bookshelf, and I was like, ‘OK, the perfect way to get rid of them is to sell them for cheap to someone who will read them.’”
The club is selling books typically priced between $20 and $30 for $1 to $10
“We’re selling them for cheap so that people can get more access to books,” Morris said. “On the flipside, we’ll get more funding for our club.”
The club was able to gather all these books from members, family, friends and with the help of local libraries that make some books available to own for free.
All funds go to materials and supplies needed for crafts, with the club hoping to give all those resources back to its members.
“We need materials for our crafts,” Thomas said. “Scissors, markers, colored pencils and hot glue guns. We’re trying to make enough money so we can start really buying stuff and get things to give out, like little goodies.”
Business is business, and one of Quinnipiac’s newest clubs will now be able to fund itself, all while giving students the chance to exchange endless scrolling for page-turning adventures.