NASA Craft Night out of this world
Yesterday the Centennial Student Union was the home of an out of this world activity, as the Multicultural Center hosted a NASA Craft Night for interested students. The evening was dedicated to crafting of all kinds, from home brought crafts to native cultural crafts.
The Native American Student Association, a multi-tribal student organization that serves students who identify as American Indian, spearheaded the event, alongside Megan Heutmaker, the Director of American Indian Affairs on campus.
According to Heutmaker, the activities differ each time a craft night is held, and fully depend on what the student attendees want to make.
“Activities will vary from each evening. These first 2 craft nights, we have been working on beading lanyards. The students are really guiding what crafts we are doing and just because we are offering the supplies for a certain activity, doesn’t mean someone can’t bring their own projects they are working on,” Heutmaker said.
“We have a student who is a very skilled beader, and they are taking the time to teach their peers about how to bead. I know we have students who crochet, knit, and do all sorts of creative crafting and those are all welcome here at our craft nights,” Heutmaker continued.
Interested students are free to stop by whenever they’d like, leaving their school stress at the door and unwind from the busyness of campus life.
On top of building crafts, the event also serves as a community builder, bringing like-minded students together to bond relationships, stronger than any Elmer’s glue bottle.
“We are hosting these events because they are times to build community with each other and share time doing things we love to do. Often times we are working on projects for family members. And we sit around sharing laughs and talking about what’s going on in our lives. Sometimes we are also watching Reservation Dogs and enjoying the show together,” Heutmaker said.
Minnesota State campus is not a stranger to NASA-hosted craft nights, even opting to go virtual when Covid closed down campus.
“Recently throughout the pandemic, we did virtual craft lunches where we would sit on Zoom and catch up, share what was going on, work on our crafts and have lunch together,” Heutmaker said.
Despite the slight inconvenience, the event is stronger than ever, and not going anywhere.
“We will continue to hold these events as long as students are interested and wanting to connect around this topic. There are a number of creative and beautiful crafts in the American Indian community that students are always interested in making and my job is always to support what our students want to do,” Heutmaker said.
Header Photo: Students can create all different kinds of crafts at the NASA-held craft nights on campus, from beading, to crochet, to knitting, and anything in between. (Dylan Engel/The Reporter)
Write to Joey Erickson at joseph.erickson.2@mnsu.edu