Sixth grade students at Reed Intermediate School made the most of a half day, Wednesday, December 2, participating in numerous acts of service. Students were given the opportunity to participate in knitting baby hats for Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU), making baby blankets for hospitals, making sandwiches for local shelters and food pantries, making cards and decorations for area seniors, and painting ceramic pieces for Ben’s Bells wind chimes, said teacher Julie Shull. The day of service followed up on a month focusing on kindness and service, said Ms Shull.

Daniel Sibley, a student from Michael Corvello’s class, was working on crocheting a knit cap for a child, under the supervision of teacher Dawn Ford. “It’s hard work,” said Daniel, as he wound strand after strand around the crochet loom, “but I’m glad for who we’re doing it for.”

 In Ms Shull’s room, students painted ceramic pieces that will become part of Ben’s Bells wind chimes. The painted pieces would be returned to the Ben’s Bells studio in Bethel, said Ms Shull, where they would be fired, before being strung onto the kindness wind chimes that are placed randomly about communities in need of hope and healing.

In other classrooms, the sixth graders smeared peanut butter and jelly onto bread, then wrapped and packed the sandwiches into decorated paper bags. The sandwiches, said teachers Petrice DiVanno and Matt Brown, would be delivered by volunteer teachers and parents to the Dorothy Day House in Danbury.

Paper snowflakes, and handmade gift cards and bags were underway in another classroom, with those items destined for delivery to area nursing homes and the elderly. They would be used to brighten the winter days, especially important for people in nursing homes, said student Alexa Unger.

Flannel baby blankets cut, fringed, and ready to go were piled on the floor in Ellen Buckley’s classroom, where students had quickly taken on the project. Those blankets, said Ms Buckley, are intended for NICUs in area hospitals.

The day of service, coordinating with the Love Wins programs underway at the Newtown Congregational Church that morning, and a later in-service program for Newtown teachers at the high school, is a wonderful opportunity for students to understand how one person can make a difference, said Ms DiVanno. “It’s a continuation,” she said, “of our focus on kindness.”