BELLVILLE — In Kourtney Kucirek’s classroom, preparing for adulthood means learning how to give back.
Students in Kucirek’s Advanced Sewing class delivered homemade scarves and hats for Wayfinders residents Wednesday. The students also visited the Humane Society of Richland County to drop off dog and cat toys they made in class.
Junior Zoe Daniels said learning to giving back is an important part of the life skills course.
“It’s a home (economics) class, so it’s supposed to prepare you for when you’re living on your own,” Daniels said. “I think community service and giving back is a big aspect of being an adult.”
Junior Madison Ruhl said it was humbling to drop off the gifts.
“A lot of us here have a lot of things and sometimes we don’t realize there are a lot of people that don’t have as much,” she said. “Getting to make things for people and give them out, it’s kind of nice. It makes you feel good and hopefully they will too.”
Students began the semester-long course honing their design and pattern-making skills. Each student made their own pin cushion using a 9×9 inch piece of fabric.
After that, students spent about two months making teacher appreciation gifts.
“It took forever,” senior Chloe Lewis said. “We had this board with all the teachers’ names wrote out, what we were making them, the fabric and everything.”
Figuring out how to make the items took some trial and error. Kucirek likes to let her students experiment and learn from their mistakes.
“I kept saying, ‘I’m just the facilitator,’” Kucirek said. “It made them think and analyze, which I think is really important for their future.”
Students said they had perfected their techniques by the end of October. Over the next two months, they crafted hats, ear muffs, blankets, ties and bleacher seat cushions.
The class handed out the gifts right before winter break.
“It was definitely chaotic but I think it was worth it,” junior Kiersten Duncan said, “(The teachers) liked them a lot.”
