The Children's House Community Weaving Project is a collaboration of first through sixth graders that combines art, recycling, and service to community. The students will be making art together, then raising money from their project to gift to a local charity.
Our first job was to collect torn, stained, and discarded fabrics that would otherwise be landfill bound and turn these into weaving fiber. This assortment included baby clothes, pajama pants, tablecloths, and many T-shirts.
Next, Reed Zitting, Montessori teacher and grandparent, constructed a large, simple loom out of woodshop leftovers for the students to create a 6' X 4' weaving. Older students often assisted the younger ones, and our weaving quickly began to grow.
The final goal of our creation is to raise funds and awareness for the environmental and social needs in this beautiful place we call home. Student teams visited four organizations in our area: Cherryland Humane Society, Child and Family Services, the Watershed Center, and Street Outreach. The children interviewed staff and toured these locations to compile reports to share with the other students back at school.
One organization will be voted on by the students to receive a cash donation which will be raised when we raffle our work of art on March 4.
The weaving is a lovely expression of how sometimes, by joining talents with others, we can create something more lovely, meaningful, and useful than something we made on our own. Ideally, as we're making our own art materials and crafting beauty together, we're weaving community within our own Montessori school, as well as out in our greater neighborhood.
We need your help selling raffle tickets. Please contact Ann Edens at
941-0948 or annedens@mac.com.
For more information on the charities visit the following websites:
• Cherrylandhumane.org
• Cfsnwmi.org (Child and Family Services)
• Gtbay.org (Watershed Center)
• Goodwillnmi.org (click on Street Outreach)
