School wide Ornament Making
Christmas is the season of giving. It is when we share the love of God and the gift of His son with those around us. One of St. Peter’s first-grade teachers, Mrs. Drake, wanted to organize a school-wide project that would demonstrate Christ’s love and generosity for both our youngest and oldest students. She wanted to give back to those who have served us in the past, the elders of our community. Mrs. Drake guided multiple grades of St. Peter students in creating 350 Christmas ornaments to give to residents of the Lutheran Home in Arlington Heights.
The idea began after Mrs. Drake organized the students in creating Thanksgiving placemats for the residents. She wanted to do something more for them for Christmas. She worked closely with Dr. Barb Morton, a resident of the Lutheran Home who is also a past volunteer at St. Peter, to help make this project happen. Thanks to a Thrivent Action Grant, Mrs. Drake was able to purchase the needed supplies and had classes sign up to make ornaments with varying levels of difficulty depending on the students’ age. With the help of PDO through middle school students, hundreds of ornaments are ready to be distributed before Christmas. Some of our middle school students even used the new Maker Space lab to create ornaments, guided by Mrs. Murphy.
Mrs. Burrow’s kindergarten class and Mrs. Hiller’s 5th graders are making Christmas cards to accompany the ornaments. Each class is taking a Christmas picture and writing a short letter about what they are learning this year, projects they’ve done, and what they are enjoying about being in school. Mrs. Drake is also planning on making videos of some of our students singing carols and highlighting some of the festive artwork adorning the hallways of St. Peter right now. The staff can then broadcast the video to residents of the Lutheran Home on their internal tv channel.
Much has been taken from everyone this year, but it is especially hard on these older members of our community. Many of them are isolated and cannot see their family members as they usually would due to the risk of exposure to COVID. Hopefully, Mrs. Drake’s project will bring them a bit of joy this holiday season and remind them that they have not been forgotten amid this pandemic, and highlight God’s love for each of them.
