Elementary Students Donate Hand-Made Quilts to Foster Children

First and second-graders at Underwood Elementary School donated 18 quilts to foster children and infants through a Providence-based organization. - May 18, 2011

It was a busy week before spring break for Underwood Elementary School's first and second-graders. 

Instead of daydreaming of a week off, children were busy at sewing machines making quilts. The quilts were then delivered to Children's Friend in Providence to be distributed to foster babies throughout the state.

The project was funded by a grant awarded through the Teachers Association of Newport to Sybil Grayko and Aaron Sherman at Underwood. This is the second time Mr. Sherman's class has made the quilts but the first for the other four classrooms at Underwood. Between the five classrooms, students made 18 crib quilts and the children learned about the foster care crisis in the Rhode Island. More than 2,500 children are in care and approximately 300 are awaiting adoptive homes.

After the project was completed workers from Children's Friend visited the Underwood classrooms.  The finished quilts have already begun to find their way into the hands of infants and toddlers in foster care.