Student sew quilts for vets in hospitals
Students at MacArthur Middle School, 710 N. Schoenbeck Road, Prospect Heights, are getting a chance to reach outside themselves to help veterans of the Iraq War.
Members of Joanne Bina's seventh-grade family consumer science (once called home economics) classes and her eighth-grade community outreach elective are sewing patriotic-themed lap quilts for patients at three veterans hospitals -- Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.; Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital in Maywood; and Jesse Brown VA Medical Center in Chicago.
Bina contacted the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs last fall and asked if they might be open to the students making the quilts for the veterans. She was told there was a huge need for such quilts and that they would be thrilled to receive them.
But since most will be used by burn victims, she was cautioned not to make them too large or too heavy.
So Bina designed seven different quilts that her students could produce for the vets. The quilts range from fairly simple to quite complex so that students of all skill levels can make one.
"The thrust of the seventh-grade class is to increase students' skill level on the sewing machine and they have to do three projects for themselves during the semester. These quilts are being done between those projects because not everyone works at the same pace," Bina explained.
"I feel that this is a really great use of their time," she added.
As for the eighth-graders, their optional class centers on charity work so they have even more time to work on the patriotic quilts, Bina said.
So far the students have made 32 quilts. Bina shipped 25 to the VA last week and is keeping the other seven as examples.
"It is good for the students to do something that isn't all about them and they are very enthused about this project," she concluded.
Before starting on the project for the veterans, Bina's students made quilts for the mothers and babies served by WINGS in Arlington Heights. Over the past five years they have created 235 quilts to be given to the residents on their birthdays, Bina said.
French Consul General:ŒThe Mount Prospect Public Library and the Sister Cities Commission will welcome the French Consul General Jean-Baptiste de Boissiere for a discussion of the politics and culture of France from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Tuesday at the library, 10 S. Emerson St.
Stationed in Chicago, de Boissiere will offers insights into France and its people. To register, phone (847) 253-5675 or log onto www.mppl.org/events.