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Photo Credit: Crochet For A Cause

Awareness and kindness are at the heart of Crochet For A Cause at Mason

BY VALENTINA FALA, STAFF WRITER

Crocheting has gained popularity for its beginner-friendly approach and ability to fuel creativity. At Mason, Crochet For A Cause puts the hobby to good use, bringing members together through a creative outlet fueled by kindness to raise awareness on various causes.

The hobby is individualized so that everyone learns at their own pace; it is a matter of practice.

In crocheting, stitches are made one at a time, making it easier to learn compared to other textile crafts like knitting and sewing.

“There is the classic crochet hook, a type of crochet that replicates knitting with a very long crochet hook, micro crochet—which uses a sewing needle with a hook at the end—and you can even crochet with your fingers if the yarn is big enough,” said Crochet For A Cause Vice President Katelyn Sturch. 

Crochet For A Cause regularly seeks new partners each semester to advocate for various causes. Last semester, they partnered with Mutt Love Rescue, an animal rescue center and non-profit organization in Fairfax, Virginia. 

This semester, they partnered with Bren Mar Park Elementary School in Alexandria, Virginia. Bren Mar Park is a Title I school, meaning a high percentage of students come from low-income families. 

Initially providing crocheted hats, scarves and clothing items for kids, the club now assists with providing school supplies. Their Fall 2025 partner is not yet set, but the club is open to continuing existing and past partnerships.

“For [collaborations with] other organizations, anything that members sell –where we have promoted their work– we ask them to donate 10% but currently we haven’t had fundraisers yet for this semester,” said Crochet For A Cause President Amelie Garcia.

Regardless of skill level, anyone is welcome to join. More experienced members help others by demonstrating techniques and offering advice. The club has also compiled a list of online learning materials ranging from videos and tutorials to patterns for both beginners and more advanced crocheters.

“It is just another form of art honestly. A lot of people like crocheting clothes, a lot of people also do plushies, so it’s a really fun way to just try something new and express yourself,” said Sturch.

Photo Credit: Crochet for a Cause

Around 10 members attend each meeting, usually held on Friday from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., enjoying the process of creating plushies and other items. The club provides the necessary crocheting tools—yarn, hooks ranging from 2 mm to 8 mm, and stitch markers—free to all members.

The club hosts  various events, including Kiosk Days at the Johnson Center, where they give away crocheted items made by members and engage with interested students.

Crochet For A Cause’s newest event will take place on Friday, March 21, in collaboration with Fairfax Releaf, an organization that helps restore native plant life while removing invasive plant species. Members will go to an overgrowth site and spend two hours removing invasive plants to support the growth of native species.

To join Crochet for A Cause or learn more, visit their Instagram for additional information.

Courtesy of Blair Leonard

BY MARY J. DEMARCO, OPINION EDITOR

Blair Leonard, a second-year Mason LIFE student, has amassed over twenty thousand likes on TikTok. This achievement is the result of a complex, emotional journey spanning over five years of creating content.

As a freshman in high school, Leonard struggled with feeling comfortable expressing that she had autism spectrum disorder (ASD). One day during lunch, her friends encouraged her to download a new and increasingly popular app: TikTok. 

After just a few scrolls, Leonard found a community that made her feel seen, which allowed her to dive into the world of content creation. Anytime a new trend began, you could expect Leonard to be on top of it. 

“When I was in my freshman year, I was afraid to express my disability,” Leonard said.

But seeing other people online openly discuss their disabilities helped Leonard feel comfortable enough to do the same. However, for the most part, Leonard’s content sticks to the current TikTok trends.

“Sometimes I like to do dance videos. Sometimes I like to do comedy. I like to post cap-cut edits. I like to do lip-syncing videos, fit checks, day-in-the-life videos, everything,” she said.

TikTok provided a space for Leonard to be comfortable and vulnerable in a way she had never experienced before. Looking back, she notes that still feels very confident in herself.

A day before the temporary TikTok ban, Leonard took to the app to express her feelings. 

“I am scared about what’s gonna happen next Sunday, [Jan. 19]. I really hate when I talk about this because the more I think about it, the more anxiety I get. And I’m just worried about the future of my account,” Leonard said while addressing the ban. “You, [the U.S. government], can’t take away the one thing that brings me joy.”

Courtesy of Blair Leonard

Luckily for Leonard and the rest of American TikTok users, the app was back up and running again. For Leonard, this meant that the show could go on. She continues to create valuable content that uplifts her online community and others who have ASD. 

In a recent TikTok, Leonard showed off her drawing of a character named Luna, originally created by a first-grade student. The student’s teacher saw the first-grader’s self-made fictional character and hoped it would receive support online. The teacher encouraged others to create a “fanart” of Luna, and Leonard happily took part.

So, that’s exactly what Leonard did. Leonard’s supportive nature shines through in her TikTok videos. In the future, she hopes to continue collaborating with her friends. She sees her videos as a time capsule of her life–starting from freshman year of high school and documenting her journey to college. 

To her fans, Leonard shares a heartfelt message, “I love you guys so much and you guys are amazing.” 

BY BRIAN A. HAYUM, STAFF WRITER

After a 24-win regular season—a feat achieved only three times in school history—and a 15-3 record in conference play, the Patriots shared the regular season A-10 Conference title with state rivals, the VCU Rams. Despite being the second seed due to a head-to-head tiebreaker, the Patriots earned a double-bye to the quarterfinals, another first for the program in the conference. 

The list of firsts for the program was underscored by the individual conference awards: Head Coach Tony Skinn was named the A-10 Coach of the Year, and senior guard Jared Billups was named the Defensive Player of the Year. Senior forward Jalen Haynes and senior guard Darius Maddox rounded out the Mason representation with their respective places on the first and third all-conference teams. 

On March 14, Mason started their tournament with an 80-65 quarterfinal win against local rivals, George Washington. Haynes had a game-high 24 points, while Billups added 18 of his own along with a game-high five steals. The Patriots got off to a slow start and were down by four going into halftime after a buzzer-beating jumper by senior guard Woody Newton.

Mitchell Richtmyre/Fourth Estate

At the start of the second half, the Patriots went on a game-defining 14-0 run. “I can’t wait to go back and watch that tape because I can feel it in my bones,” said Skinn. “I just think of certain situations that injected our identity into the game… It was phenomenal to watch,” he continued. 

On Sunday, the Patriots defeated the St. Joseph’s Hawks, 74-64, to reach the program’s first-ever A-10 final and its first conference final since the 2009 CAA final. The Patriots started strong with a 14-0 run that held the Hawks scoreless until the 14:27 mark of the first half. The lead didn’t last long as Hawks sophomore guard Xzayvier Brown, who tallied a game-high 26 points, led a series of scoring runs that kept the game close for much of the second half.

On the defensive end, Newton had a staunch shot-blocking performance, tallying a game-high five blocks. “We have a saying in practice,” Newton said about his shot-blocking success. “It’s called ‘Woody Hands.’ I just wanted to make sure I had my ‘Woody Hands’ up to set up tough shots the whole night…I think this is the best basketball we have played all season.”  

Mitchell Richtmyre/Fourth Estate

On the other side of the bracket, a VCU win meant that the final would be a battle of the top two seeds for a spot in the NCAA tournament. The Patriots fell short in the title game, 68-63. Battling back from a nine-point second-half deficit, A-10 Player of the Year Max Shulga’s 12 second-half points proved  too much to overcome. 

The Patriots had a chance to send the game to overtime, but a three-point attempt as time expired by graduate forward Zach Anderson fell halfway in and popped out. “I thought it was good, just like the rest of us,” Maddox said about the potential game-tying shot.

Mitchell Richtmyre/Fourth Estate

Despite the loss, the Patriots’ impressive season earned the team an invitation to the National Invitational Tournament (NIT), Marking their first appearance in the tournament since 2009.

Mitchell Richtmyre/Fourth Estate

On Wednesday, March 19, the Mason Patriots defeated the Samford Bulldogs in the first round of the NIT, 86-69, tying the record for most overall wins in a season in school history. It was also the program’s first NIT game at home since the Patriots’ win over the Tennessee Volunteers in the first round of the 2004 tournament.

In the first half, the Patriots dominated on both sides of the court and led by 21 at halftime. The defense was stout once again, forcing the Bulldogs to commit 12 turnovers that turned into 13 of the Patriots’ 45 first-half points and holding the twelfth-highest-scoring team in the country to 21 points at the half. 

The second half proved to be more competitive. A 9-0 scoring run by the Bulldogs cut the lead to as little as 13 points, but Mason’s offensive firepower proved too much. Anderson, Maddox, and senior guard K.D. Johnson combined for 56 of the team’s 86 points. The trio also made nine of the team’s 10 three-pointers. 

“To be in this position where we’re at 27 wins… We’re one win away from them being the best team in George Mason history,” said Skinn. “Team 59 is phenomenal. I’m just trying to get these guys to play for as long as possible,” 

The Patriots will now face the Bradley Braves in a second-round matchup that, with a victory, would secure their place as the most successful team in Mason history. Tip-off is set for 7:00 p.m. at Eagle Bank Arena and streaming on ESPN +.

Jordan Giles/Fourth Estate

BY CHRISTIAN SEGOVIA, SPORTS EDITOR 

On March 9, Mason’s women’s basketball won their first-ever A-10 championship, punching in their ticket to the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history.

The team’s run began in the quarterfinals against Saint Louis, where it secured an 87-57 victory led by sophomore guard Kennedy Harris, who scored 18 points. Advancing to their first-ever semifinals in the A-10, the Patriots defeated Davidson,  63-50, with redshirt sophomore Zahirah Walton scoring 16 points.

In the A-10 final on March 9, Mason claimed its first A-10 trophy with a decisive 73-58 win  against Saint Joseph . Senior guard Paula Surarez dominated the way with 23 points, six rebounds, and six assists. Walton added 19 points, with graduate student Nalani Kaysia and Harris each contributing 11 points.

Surarez, Walton, and Kaysia were all named to the A-10 Championship team. Across the three games, Surarez averaged 16.3 points, 4.3 assists, and 3.3 rebounds per game. Kaysia averaged 8.3 points and nine rebounds, with her defensive efforts preventing key scoring opportunities.  

“You come into a school wanting to create change and win championships,” Kaysia said. “Not only have we won a championship now, we’ve made history, we left our legacy, our mark.”

Walton was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding player, averaging 16 points, 6.6 rebounds and three assists while shooting 46.3% from the field and 50% from the three-point line. “I think it’s really special coming in my freshmen year; it was not like this before Coach Blair got here, she’s the reason I came here,” said Walton. “The coaches made it very special, and I think as a team we worked hard, and that’s what makes it even more better, winning the championship together.”

Since taking over in 2021, Head Coach Vanessa Blair-Lewis has guided the team to four double-digit win seasons. This season, she led the team to its first consecutive 20-plus win seasons and set a program record with 24 wins. 

“You know when you have people you’re leading and they believe you’re worthy enough to follow them and that you’re crazy enough to tell them that we’re going to be champions one day and there’s no evidence of that, it’s a big responsibility,” said Coach Lewis. “It is a responsibility that I carried every single day I walked into that arena. I promised those parents that I was going to take care of their child on and off the court and every single year we took steps and I said tonight is the night you take the step to be a champion, so I guess we a little crazy huh?” 

With their first conference trophy, Coach Lewis’s mindset wasn’t just about winning the championship for Mason or proving doubters wrong about taking the job—it was about doing it for her dad, who is in hospice. 

“I Facetimed him before the game, he said, ‘Go win,’” Coach Lewis said. “He’s not just my dad, he was my coach, he’s a big part of the DMV coaching area. I really wish he could have been here and I knew he was here in spirit, that’s who I thought about in the last minute. This was for my dad.” 

The Patriots look to continue their historic season going against Florida State in Baton Rouge, La, on Saturday, March 22 on ESPN 2.