Francis HowellMiddle School

The eighth graders at Francis Howell Middle School learned the importance of recycling and giving back to the community through a recent project, Quilts 4 Comfort. The students in Ms. Justis’s sewing and child development classes used recycled fabric to make lap quilts for the residents at Delmar Gardens retirement community.

The students used a combination of leftover scrap fabric from previous sewing projects, as well as donated fabric and cotton to make warm blankets for those living in the retirement home. “My motivation for this project is to teach my students to always think of ways to reuse, reduce, and recycle any usable materials that we may have access to,” said Justis.  

The students not only learned how to be creative with their resources but also how this can benefit the environment and other people. “We used scrap fabric because we would have thrown it away and instead of throwing it away we helped people,” said Grant S. Natalia F. appreciated the extra effort of making quilts out of recycled materials. “It was a lot harder to make the quilts out of scraps so I just thought that it made it more thoughtful and heart-warming.”

Some of the students even had the opportunity to deliver the blankets to the Delmar Gardens community and socialize with the seniors. “I really liked this project,” said Irvin H. “It feels great to give back to the community.” Natalie F. shared how the underlying effort inspired her in class each day. “It motivated me to work very hard on it because we were giving back to our community.” In addition to spending time with the residents, the visit also provided students with an opportunity to explore some potential careers in health and human services, as well as elder care.

Justis prepares six service projects each year in her classes that benefit two different organizations. “It is very important to me as a teacher to emphasize giving back to the community and to think of others,” she said. We are excited to see what other ways Justis and her students will support our world in the future!