Kelloggsville — Kelloggsville Middle School students celebrated the diversity of their school through the creation of a paper community quilt.
“We were looking for a way to represent all the students in the school,” said school counselor Emily Tuttle, who with fellow school counselor Laura Kuperus led the project.
“Through this, students were able to express who they are in our school, and we thought of a quilt because it is woven together, just like everyone comes together to represent our building and our community.”
Students worked on the project during Pride Time, a 25-minute period on Wednesdays that focuses on be nice activities such as mental health and awareness lessons, Kuperus said.
Detroit Lions to Flags of Various Countries
Starting with a square piece of paper with a LeMoyne Star, an eight-point star popular with quilters, students were encouraged to make it their own by highlighting their culture, interests and/or activities.
The Detroit Lions, the state of Michigan, flags from various countries, religious symbols and cities were just some of the items featured on the squares.
The middle school’s student leadership group took the 373 squares collected, representing about three-quarters of the school, and assembled them into a large display in the school’s cafeteria.
“I’ve learned there are a lot of cultures that I didn’t know were in the school,” said eighth-grader Carissa Arguijo-Huete, whose square represented her culture of Honduras.
“I like this one because of the colors,” she said, pointing to one with a yellow, blue and red flag in the center, “and my friends are Venezuelan.”
Seventh-grader Samaria Dunlap, whose square focused on her Mexican/American heritage, said she learned from the project that a lot of her friends have Italian heritage.
“The students have really enjoyed it,” Tuttle said. “When it first went up, there were a ton of kids looking at it and pointing out the different squares.”
The project was done for Black History Month, Tuttle said, and the plan is for the quilt to remain up through the rest of the year.
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