ST. LOUIS — At World Wide Technology Global Headquarters, this group of employees works in a high-tech world.
But for the past two months, they made space to do a pretty low-tech thing. Crocheting.
World Wide Technology Technical Solution Architect, Rita Younger, spearheaded the project.
"What we did is we had people sign up from our employee resource groups. I expected about a dozen people to sign up to learn how to crochet. And we ended up with about 80 people signing up," Younger said.
Rita began the stress-reducing hobby last November and recruited her coworker, Courtney Roberts, to help teach the skill to others.
"I've been crocheting since I was seven. So I was very excited for the opportunity to do that. It was really cool to see people say, you know, 'I don't know how to do it. I can't even do a chain,' and now seeing the amount of things that we've created," Roberts said.
Each week they join for lunch and crochet baby blankets and hats to donate to NICUs at local hospitals and several military hospitals in other areas.
"I made baby-size army hats with the little bill in camouflage yarn. And I just think, distributing those to military hospitals, it's going make a lot of our military moms and dads very, very proud," Younger said.
And for Courtney, the project is personal.
"My daughter was in the NICU, and she had donated beanies, so being able to do that for somebody else now is amazing," Roberts said.
Employees near and far joined in on the project.
"Sometimes you just need that common bond, working at a technology company. We're so spread apart. It's really nice to bring everyone together," Younger said.
Beyond giving back to the community and our US Service members, the group gained a lifelong skill while connecting with each other.
For more information about World Wide Technology's employee resource groups, follow along on social media, @wwt_life, or visit their website.
Want more local lifestyle news delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for the Show Me newsletter.