Fifth-grade 'Blanketeers' Deliver Comfort Through Service Project

Teacher Sarah Flynn stood in the Joseph T. Donahue Elementary art room Wednesday morning among stacks of folded fleece sheets, explaining to a crowd of rapt fifth-graders how to make a blanket using only scissors and their hands.

The 40 students watching were the district’s fifth-grade Leaders in Training, a group selected by teachers from all four primary schools to participate in community service activities throughout their last year in elementary school.

Wednesday, they directed their efforts toward helping Project Linus, a national nonprofit that calls on volunteers to craft blankets for children in shelters, hospitals or otherwise in need.

“It’s great, because there are a lot of things we do in the individual schools, but this brings them all together,” said Flynn, who teaches fifth grade at Donahue. The elementary school program feeds into a similar student service group at the middle school, she said.

Flynn said the LIT group has had success with the project before, and the cheery blankets have gone to a shelter for women and children in south Jersey. “They’re very thankful for them,” she said.

Barnegat’s young “blanketeers” had been working on the project long before they buckled down to the tasks of cutting and knotting, said Flynn.

Throughout the month of February, they sold red, pink and purple beads to classmates, ultimately raising $1,300 to spend on fleece.

On Wednesday, the fruits of that labor were stacked around the Donahue art room in piles of soft, folded fabric in bright hues and cheery patterns. But the work wasn’t done. They aimed to make 50 brand new blankets by day's end.

The students absorbed their instructions: lay two colorful pieces on top of one another, trim a 2-inch fringe border, knot the layers together – simple, quick and no need to sew. And in groups of three, four and five, they set about trimming and tying with great concentration and a healthy dose of competitive spirit.

“This is going to get tiring,” said 10-year-old Gianna LaVelle as she knotted fringe on a bright pink blanket covered with cartoon frogs. “But it’s fun. That’s the important part.”

“And you’re helping people,” piped up Hannah Jones, 11.

Her fellow Leaders shared the sentiment.

“I think this is a really caring project,” said Antonio Bevacqui, 10, who was hunched over a blanket in the corner of the art room with three classmates.

The boys said they got satisfaction out of knowing the blankets were going to children that needed them.

“They’re for people that otherwise don’t have anything,” said 10-year-old Dylan McMenamin. His only concern: he was missing test day.

But the good feeling they get from the project is what Leaders in Training is all about, said Cole Quelch, 11.

“I like how it feels to help the babies and everyone else in our community,” he said. “And we get to interact with each other.”

That’s no small part of LIT, according to teachers and kids alike. After recent district reshuffling, former elementary classmates landed in different schools. 

But the group projects “lets me reunite with my friends,” said Victoria Wallace, 11. She and her friend Nicole Piskorzewski, 10, were sprawled on the floor in the library, carefully knotting their way around the border of their blanket.

And besides being fun, LIT “gives me a great opportunity to help other people,” said Wallace. “It’s what I love to do most.”

“It feels good,” said Piskorzewski. “It feels like I’m doing my part.”