Franklinton Elementary School Students Helping Other Children
Inspired by the idea of connecting students with projects that impact our local community, Blake Taylor and students at Franklinton Elementary School are making blankets for those in need – one tie at a time.
Taylor teaches fourth grade at Franklinton Elementary School in Franklinton, North Carolina. As a second year teacher at FES, he was determined to find a local organization that provides support for those in need – that’s when he found Project Linus.
According to Taylor, “I really wanted to do something more than just teach our students about our curriculum -- reading, writing, math, these are all great -- but how are we teaching our students about community and helping others? That is when I decided to go and look for a service project with which the students would be able to identify.”
Project Linus is an organization that takes handmade blankets and donates them to children in need, right here in the Triangle. Recipients of these blankets may be children facing tremendous odds in local hospitals or families going through extreme circumstances in our homeless shelters.
“I coordinated back and forth with the chair of the Raleigh chapter and she sent me the specs for making a no-sew fleece blanket,” Said Taylor.
Students have been working over the last few weeks to create no-sew fleece blankets. Taylor and the rest of the fourth grade teachers at FES, Karla Webber and Justin Collins, sent letters home to parents soliciting materials for the blankets or small donations to benefit the project – the team received over $100 in donations and various supplies.
With the support of the community and the vision of our teachers, forty-eight students have worked in pairs to make over thirty-five blankets. Taylor and his team hope to encourage the idea of service learning, especially during the holiday season, “It has been a lot of fun, and I think that our students found the joy in giving this holiday season,” he said.
