For October our theme for Activity Days was Service and Citizenship. I decided to focus on the service aspect. I had read about the Ronald McDonald House projects of providing blankets and cards. When my little sister was a baby she was in the hospital with Failure to Thrive. She was too young to connect with toys but the blanket mom made her remains with her today in her late 20's. She carried that blanket with her everywhere. When it became nothing but rags- literally mom promised to make another EXACTLY like it. Well, being attached to it and a bit of a smarty pants she always replied, "you can make me another one mom, but you can't take this one". We have a RMH close but I also work at the local community hospital. It is just a small hospital but there are quite a few kids that come in. With RSV season around the corner I thought it would be nice to provide service for our own community.
I managed to get fleece on sale 40% off at Joann's. I bought enough for each girl to make 2 blankets. They are just small lap blankets but the idea is for the kids to have something warm and fuzzy to cuddle up to when they don't feel good. I was hoping to get 20 blankets made....
We simply cut and tied the fringe on the fleece. No sewing required and simple enough for 8 and 9 yr old girls who out number their leaders 4:1!
We also planned to make cards. I searched for a couple of ideas that could easily be assembled by the girls. I found The Handmade Card Blog. She has several ideas that I was able to adapt cards from. Many others I hope to make as well. It was a great find!
From my scouting days I learned that individual kits are great helps when doing projects with young ones. So I pulled out my cricut and searched for supplies I had on hand already......
I precut what I needed from my cricut (love this little gadget!) I spread the sets out so each girl would get the supplies to make 6 cards; 2 each of 3 different styles.
Then that night I just walked the girls through the assembly process. I had ideas of what they should/could write on the card. Some of the girls provided their own variations too. In the end we had a great bunch of cards to be filled out by family and friends or even staff and given to a little one feeling blue.
Our last meeting of the month we piled in the cars and delivered the blankets and cards to the hospital. The nurses were excited and so glad to see the fuzzy gifts.
On the way home we stopped for an ice cream cone- enjoying the "Sweetness of Service".
Shannon you are an amazing teacher! Way to think ahead! Mr. Keegan is getting too big, will you tell him he is making me feel old :-)
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