Beautiful bouquets are available at EnVi Crochet (envicrochet.org). 

Three Westview High School juniors are working to create a more sustainable planet by crocheting flowers to raise money to plant trees in three different countries.

“We initially learned how to crochet, and we taught ourselves through YouTube and other tutorials, and we wanted to do something with it. We wanted to have some sort of community impact and kind of give back with our art rather than do something for ourselves,” said Yalini Gopalswamy, a co-founder and finance/operations director for EnVi Crochet.

And we landed on One Tree Planted, which is an organization that focuses on planting trees around the world. So what we do is we actually sell crochet flowers and with the profits that we make, we plant trees in places that need it most such as Brazil or Mexico and India.”

Sara Beg, a cofounder and digital outreach manager for the group, said she’s excited that the group passed its original goal in the number of trees it’s been able to plant.

From 2021 to 2023, they have planted 1,300 trees to aid in reforestation in those there countries, said Gopalswamy.

Anna Rajesh, EnVi Crochet’s digital marketing and customer service coordinator, said while the group started two years ago with slightly lower expectations of what they could accomplish, she’s pleased to see that their initial goal of planting 40 to 50 trees jumped to 1,300.

The time it takes to produce the crochet flowers depends on the type of flower students create. While a bouquet of poppies might take approximately 20 minutes to craft, tulips can take up to an hour to crochet.

Also, limited-edition hand warmers and hats for pets that are sold during the holiday are more labor intensive and can take up to two hours to make.

Although based at Westview, EnVi Crochet is not a Westview club per se, rather an organization that any area high school student can join.

“We’re building a team of local high schoolers around the area, so it’s not specific to Westview. We also have some students from Sunset who are part of the team,” said Beg.

EnVi Crochet leaders have sold their creations in front of the West Union Safeway grocery store, a short walk from Westview High School.

At the same time, Rajesh said EnVi Crochet has been trying to make itself more efficient as a business by building a broader group of students to help.

“We’ve been reaching out for a team within our Westview community, and hopefully that will help us with reaching out to other storefronts, and hopefully do some community events like this,” she said.

In addition to the group’s tree-planting efforts, EnVi Crochet has raised money for other organizations such as The Trevor Project, an organization that supports LGBTQIA+ rights and teens who are struggling with mental health issues, said Gopalswamy.

Still, the group’s goal is maximizing contributions to reforestation.

“We want to get to 3,000 trees or more by the end of the year and save them around the world,” said Rajesh.

In addition, she said the group has a goal of hosting community events where different areas can “come together and crochet, learn about us and then hopefully we can generate some profits to donate and then plant more trees.”

Gopalswamy said the types of trees planted in a specific location depend on the country where they are being planted. Since Mexico has seen an extensive loss of Monarch butterflies due to deforestation and the loss of habitat for those insects, the goal in that country is to plant the types of trees where Monarch butterflies traditionally would lay their eggs and feed.

The students said once the trees have been planted, usually in a month or two, EnVi Crochet receives confirmation that those trees have been planted.

Rajesh said the goal is to plant 5,000 trees before all three students graduate, a year and a half from now.

For more information, visit @envi.crochet on Instagram or their website at envicrochet.org.