March 8 – A group of high school students learned a new skill as part of the service project, which started more than 100 miles from the British pound.
English teacher SHS Loren Fritz said that the Knitty Gritty project teaches students how to stick to scarves, which are then donated to local primary schools. Fritz students recently donated 105 o’clocks to the Franklin Elementary School-enough for each student in the first grade.
Students start knitting in late August and continued until the winter holiday. However, Fritz said that children who adhere to the project are so much enjoyed that they often have regularly in their spare time.
“I just teach them how to own, but then they return home and teach themselves everything else,” said Fritz. “I have one girl this year, 30 or wakes are bound. Kinds run with her, which is amazing. Then, I have children who have things like that wallet, which I did not know. They only discover it.”
Fritz said that the project began in Solon, Iowa, written by Andrea Velaskiz and her seventh grade students in 2003.
“When September 11 fell, there was a woman who was part of the 93rd trip,” Fritz said. “Her name was Lauren Grancols, and she was pregnant. She was in the middle of writing a book about teaching yourself a new skill. One of the things in her incomplete book was teaching yourself coherent. So, her husband sent the book to Andrea’s chapter, and they started the project in this way.”
Velasquez maintained the project, and when the tragic Sandy Hook School fired in December 2012, her students wanted to donate scarves. However, Fritz said, this was at the stage when the Sandy Hook was no longer donated. Therefore, children donated scarves to local primary school students from the low social and economic situation.
In 2020, Velaskiz moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where she continued the project with Fritz, who was also studying in Cedar Rapids at the time. Fritz, a 2015 SHS graduate, returned to teaching SHS in 2023 and brought the program with it.
“I teach them either in their lunch, preparatory, or if they ended early in the chapter,” said Fritz. “The teachers here were amazing. Our children can hold in the classroom, but when they say,” well, the materials are far away, “they have put them away. We have no problems with it. So, you will see children wandering at school with knitting supplies.”
Since then, Fritz has expanded the project to include the SHS life skills, which enhances the inclusion by integrating students with disabilities with their peers into public education.
“If I have a child in the life skills that spoiled, I will get one of my students to help them repair it while flying.” “This is great because they are involved with each other, and they help, and they learn how to interact with a student who suffers from a disability when they do not get this opportunity in general.”
Before her students start knitting this year, Fritz makes them choose the place where the scarves will go by searching for local schools that local schools need.
Fritz said that the project reserves the storage of knitting needles and supplies thanks to local donations and an annual grant from the Atermani Schools Foundation. To donate, send an e -mail to Fritz on LFRITZ@sps5.org.
