North Hudson fifth- graders donate blankets

• From left, fifth-graders Jaeden Turner, Kayla Sears and Kirsten Amann

From left, fifth-graders Jaeden Turner, Kayla Sears and Kirsten Amann give a short presentation informing the students and teachers of North Hudson Elementary of the blanket project they have been working for the past few weeks. Photo by Jordan Willi

Talk about it

’Tis the season for giving. But for the fifth-graders at North Hudson Elementary, it was the season for giving back.

Instead of their traditional classroom gift exchange, the students in Jennifer Schwalbach’s class decided they would rather raise money to make polar fleece tie-blankets to donate to local hospitals. When the other fifth-grade classes heard about the project, they wanted to help too.

The idea for the donation came from Jaeden Turner, a fifth-grader in Schwalbach’s class. Turner had participated in a similar project to earn her Girl Scout Community Service badge earlier this year. Turner’s mother, Tammy, made the arrangements for the blankets to be donated to the Hudson Hospital.

“We started talking about the project at the beginning of December,” said Schwalbach. “The kids did pretty much everything themselves.”

Over a two week period, the fifth-graders did odd jobs around their homes and for neighbors to raise the money for the materials to create the blankets. They were able to come up with over $190 which allowed them to buy enough supplies to construct 15 full-size blankets. The students gave up their recess time for a week in order to finish the blankets before the holiday break.

“It feels good to get something for Christmas,” Turner said. “Hopefully it will make them happier knowing people care about them even if they don’t know who they are.”

Jaeden, along with two other students from the other fifth-grade classes, made a presentation in front of the whole school during their All School Holiday Sing-A-Long on Thursday, Dec. 22. They then handed off the blankets to Jennifer Osterbauer, nurse manager at Hudson Hospital.

“We will give the blankets to patients that need a little boost in their spirits. It is hard for kids to be in the hospital,” said Osterbauer. “It puts a smile on their faces to get a gift like this. It will be awesome to tell the story of the class that made the blankets and let them know what the class did.”

Osterbauer says the blankets will be handed out by the nurses at Hudson Hospital periodically over the next few weeks to the patients that could use them the most.

Tags: north hudson, communities, education