Allegheny Valley 4th grade students make blankets for those in need

A short-term project for fourth graders at Acmetonia Elementary School has become a project to help those in need in the school community.

Meredith Cooper’s fourth grade class helped spearhead the initiative in December. The project was a part of the school’s monthly theme for its social-emotional period. December’s theme was gratitude.

“This teaches them that some people are in greater need than us, and we wanted to give back,” Cooper said.

Cooper thought of having her class make blankets after seeing a social media post of students at Hampton Township School District making blankets for a nursing home. They have been doing the project for years, she said.

Once a week, the class works on tying blankets together. Cooper’s class of 20 kids has made 10 blankets so far. Between her class and two other fourth grade classes, a total of 15 blankets have been made. Cooper said the classes plan to donate the blankets to anyone in need in the community.

The process was rough in the beginning as the students had to apply their math skills to do the cutting, measuring lengths for the blankets to make sure they matched, she said. Cooper is proud of the progress her students have made since starting the project.

“It’s fantastic. I think they have got the part of ‘we need do to something for someone else,’ ” she said.

Jennifer Vecchio, one of the principals at Acmetonia, was on board with the idea after Cooper’s class ran it by her. She helps supply the blankets for the classes. She said the kids are not told where the blankets go.

“They just need to know the blanket will help make someone feel better,” she said.

Vecchio was happy to see a project done for fun become a long-term project for a greater cause.

“That’s exciting to me, to see them with an invested interest in this,” Vecchio said.

For some students, the experience has been a first with creating blankets, and they were grateful to be doing it with others.

Isabelle Cain, 9, likes the handiwork of tying the blankets together. She has only seen her mom make blankets before.

“It’s fun tying the blankets together. That’s my favorite part,” she said.

Sophia Bigler, 10, enjoys being able to make blankets with her friends.

“It’s really fun. We get to help people, and we get to do it with friends,” Bigler said.