Westhampton Beach 2nd Graders Create Quilts For Kids With Cancer

WESTHAMPTON BEACH, NY — Stitched with love: Westhampton Beach Elementary School second grade students are sewing quilts as part of a kindness initiative and fundraiser for the St. Jude "Experimenting, Prototyping, Inventing and Creating," or EPIC, challenge, district officials said.

The project, conceived by STEM teacher Katherine Haack, school librarian Joy Campagna and art teacher Sarah Drake, kicked off after students read “The Kindness Quilt,” by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace and discussed the meaning of kindness.

During art, students learned about what quilts are, how the quilt sandwich method is used to construct the pieces, and the meaning of collaboration, the district said.

Students then constructed their own quilt blocks after practicing how to draw block letters. With the blocks complete, they worked in their STEM classes to piece them together using sewing machines, the district said.

The four fully constructed quilts, which feature words of kindness, will be showcased at the Parrish Art Museum's student exhibition from March 12 to May 1 and then donated to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital along with a book of get-well-soon notes that the children wrote in STEM — to bring smiles to the faces of children battling cancer.

Additionally, students are aiming to raise $1,000 for the organization through its EPIC Challenge fundraising page. Students collaboratively designed the page during their STEM period. Donations can be made here.