RCOE Students Sew Quilts for Fire Victims

When wildfires swept across Southern California in October, RCOE students at David Brown Middle School in Wildomar responded with a little warmth and comfort for fire victims.

Teacher Michelle Elias said the students, nine boys ranging in age from 11-13, had worked about six months making quilts under a pilot program sponsored by the Riverside County Board of Education. The Board offered a grant that paid for sewing machines and materials.

Students spent two or three afternoons a week learning to follow a pattern, cut fabric, and sew materials together. The original plan was to donate the quilts to needy children, said Elias. Then the fires hit. Thousands of people were forced to flee their homes.

“I was home on a Monday night, and I thought, ‘What are we going to do for these people?’” Elias said. She turned on a television and noticed that the Red Cross was taking donations for fire victims, many of them children.
Elias drove to the evacuation center at the San Bernardino Airport and gave nine quilts to the emergency workers there. She was struck by the sight of hundreds of families, many with children, living in the airport hangar for days on end.

The students’ donation was recorded by television reporter Jim Hill (KCAL news). Elias said her students were excited when they watched the videotape, both to see their teacher on television and to see the reaction to their donation.

The project was intended to teach her students a new skill, Elias said. What they received in addition to that was knowing that their months of hard work helped families in need feel a little safer and warmer.

 

 

 

The 2004 Report to the Community was written and prepared by the Riverside County Office of Education. Copyright © 2004 Riverside County Superintendent of Schools. 3939 Thirteenth Street, Riverside, CA 92502-0868