These Texas middle schoolers are determined to make a difference in their community
At Burleson’s Kerr Middle School, when some students take breaks from reading, writing and math they put away their books and take out hooks.
Crochet hooks.
Under the guidance of math teacher Diana McGee, tweens and teens turn balls and skeins of yarn into fabric.
Specifically, they are making lap blankets for veterans at the Dallas VA Medical Center.
Kylie Hay, 11, a sixth-grade student, said their work is important.
“We are helping the people in the hospital who have served us,” she said.
Meet Kerr Middle School’s Make A Difference club, sometimes lovingly referred to as MAD. The community service club is one of several offered at the middle school which serves about 1,300 students in grades 6-8.
“We get people to donate the yarn and donate crochet hooks and the first six weeks, I try to teach them,” McGee said. “Some of them, they are teenagers so it is a struggle for some them, but they want to do it and they do it.”
Club members said it’s about making something special for someone who sacrificed for someone else.
“Crocheting actually makes me feel good because we are doing it for veterans,” said Drew Larabell, 11, a seventh-grade student.
Making a difference
Throughout the school year, about 38 MAD club members work on different projects aimed at improving the community, including collecting magazines for veterans, visiting a nearby nursing home and collecting Christmas presents for foster children.
“They pick things that they want to do,” McGee said. “Last year, they made baskets for the custodians to say, ‘Thank you.’”
They meet three times a week for 30 minutes.
“Our MAD club, that Ms. McGee leads, is really successful and really popular,” said Principal Kalee McMullen, adding that there were more than 100 requests by students to join.
Clubs help enhance learning for all students, McMullen said.
“This really fits into getting them engaged in the school as a whole, making them know that we love them and care about them as whole humans, or as whole students,” McMullen said.
A sub-group within the Make A Difference club is making the lap blankets throughout the school year. The blankets will be delivered to veterans in May. The lap blankets fit over a wheelchair or can be used by veterans who are bedridden, McGee said.
McGee said handmade lap blankets are items requested by the veterans hospital.
“We have actually received thank you notes from veterans who have said, ‘My mother used to crochet so when I got this blanket, it reminded me of how she loved me and took care of me.’”
A lesson in compassion
McGee said the project helps students serve those who served country.
McGee said students can reflect on sacrifices made by Americans who have served in world events and conflicts that they hear about in the news, McGee said.
“I created the club because my philosophy is we need to teach our children young that they are an important part of our community and they always have something to contribute,” McGee said, adding that she want students to know they have an impact in the world.
McGee said she learns from them too.
“I see their compassion for others,” McGee said.
The students admit that their age demographic is more often associated with video games and social media than crochet, but that’s a stereotype they simply shrug off.
Sixth-grade student Kaitlyn Hairrell, 11, said she can juggle her old hobbies with her new interest in crochet.
“If I am just sitting at home with my phone I get bored easily,” Kaitlyn said. “I have to be doing something that, like, satisfies me or something that I really like. Crocheting — I ask Ms. McGee if I can take it home every day because I like to do it at home.”
Kaitlyn and Drew said their club work transcends age, gender and grade level.
“We learn about one another,” Kaitlyn said. “He’s a seventh-grader and I’m a sixth-grader, but that doesn’t really matter. We still learn about each other. We help each other. We do the same things.”
