MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) - Mason City Alternative School students are feeling the joy in holiday giving this season.
The students have made fleece tie blankets, or “buddy blankets,” as a student-led project for elementary students at the Mason City Alternative School.
Teacher Katie Fistler said they started Dec. 16 and had been working on two blankets per day, and on Dec. 20, Fistler and the students who worked on the blankets delivered them to each elementary school.
“It’s one of my favorite projects,” she said. “It’s so fun.”
This is the fifth year of making the buddy blankets, and Fistler said the first year they did it, they made the blankets for the homeless shelter.
“That was just something the kids thought of,” she told the Mason City Globe Gazette. “This was all kid-generated.”
The next year, the teachers wanted to do the blankets again since it was a fun and enjoyable experience for the students, but this time do it for the elementary students, and Fistler said they had been doing it for the elementary school kids ever since.
Many other service projects have been incorporated in the alternative school’s curriculum, including putting together hygiene bags in the sewing class, volunteering at the community kitchen monthly and making pads for cancer patients to put over their cancer ports to guard against rubbing.
The students made two blankets - one for a girl and one for a boy - for each Mason City elementary school for a total of eight blankets.
“If we could make more, we would do that,” alternative school student Jade Green, 16, said. “There’s tons of kids here in Mason City and all over the place that need that sense of importance that they matter and we’re listening and we’re here for them.”
The school counselors and principals pick out the two students at each elementary who received the blankets, and Fistler said the blanket recipients usually do not receive much for Christmas.
“I just let the elementary school choose who they feel is most deserving for a buddy blanket,” Fistler said. “…I think they choose students who may not be getting much during the holidays, and so then they will receive a gift from us.”
Green said she wanted to help because not every kid around the holiday season gets a present or a warm welcoming, and sometimes their parents have to pay for a meal or the bills and don’t have enough for presents under the tree.
“I think kids, they know that … other kids get presents around that time of year, but when we give back to them it’s for free,” she said. “It’s not just because, you know, hey, it’s Christmastime, it’s also because they need a sense of comfort, knowing … it’s going to be OK. There’s other people looking out for you, other people that think about you.”
To make the buddy blankets, the alternative school students had to first raise money to buy the fleece fabric by selling chain links among the student body.
Students at the school can buy a strip of colored construction paper for 10 cents each, write their name on it and add it to the chain of paper links in each classroom. They were also selling candy grams to each other for 25 cents each.
“Apparently Nugget (the school therapy dog) has bought some (candy grams) for people,” Fistler said. “I don’t know if she paid in dog treats or what.”
Each buddy blankets is made of two different 2-by-2 yards of fleece fabric. Fleece fabric can cost anywhere from $5 to $10 a yard at JoAnn Fabric and Craft Stores, where the students bought it.
The week prior to the students tying the blankets, a teacher and some students went to the store and picked out some fabric, using the project as a math lesson: they measured and cut fabric, and they also learned money managing and budgeting, Fistler said.
Green said she learned how to cut evenly, measurements and a sense of responsibility for the kids who will be receiving the blankets, and helping others is always a good chance to give back.
“Christmas isn’t just about presents,” she said. “It’s also a day to give back to people and just let them know that they’re there. Family. The (alternative school) is a great example of that. We are one big happy family, and we just love to share that with everyone.”
When choosing the fabric, Green said they were thinking of different personalities, as well as which colors will brighten up a kid’s mood, like red, dark blues and neon green.
“We had to look at it from … each point of view because each child is different,” she said. “They have different personalities; not every child is going to like the same thing … so we really had to take that into perspective.”
Learning the value of giving back and doing a service project for others was an important aspect of the project for the students to learn, Fistler said.
“Whatever you do later in life, try to give back to the people that have helped you,” she said. “Most of these kids have been in elementary here in the school district, and so just giving a chance to do something fun for their elementary that they’re elementary has done so much for them that this is just their way of giving back to the community.”
Fistler said the students love making the blankets not just because it’s a break from their normal classes, but also because they can see the joy it brings to the elementary school children.
“When they go and deliver the blankets, just the smile and the reward feeling that they get is really, really cool,” she said.
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