A sewing lesson in school kit bags

For many years, members of the Amish community in the Goshen (Indiana) area have diligently and generously volunteered with MCC meat canning.

Although a few individuals have also been involved in other material resources efforts, this winter three Amish schools developed a connection with MCC in a new way.

From February through April, three schools donated 50 filled school kits - a generous gift within itself. But in addition to that, they sewed and donated 376 school kit bags!

The project began when Ken Sensenig, MCC East Coast staff, visited eleven Amish schools in October with Les Gustafson-Zook, MCC Great Lakes Regional Associate. They visited classrooms, spoke about school kits, and even got the children involved in singing a school kit song.

After their visit, Orley Yoder and Glenn Lambright, Amish school board members, and Gustafson-Zook began brainstorming about how some Amish schools could get involved with school kits.

As they talked, it became clear that this could be a win-win situation for both groups. The upper grade girls in these schools were learning how to sew and needed ways to practice. MCC needed someone to sew bags for the donated school kit contents.

MCC provided the schools with donated material, patterns and rope, and the schools incorporated the sewing project into their classrooms. "The mothers were tickled that their older girls had this chance to learn how to sew," said Lambright. Some students even took the material home to cut out the patterns, so they would have more time to sew in the classroom.

"We didn't have anybody complain," said Lambright. "It was a very worthwhile project, and we'd like to get more schools involved if we do it again next year."

If you're interested in getting involved with MCC material resource kits and projects, visit mcc.org/kits or contact the MCC Great Lakes material resource center at (574) 534-4071.