MLK Jr. Day in U-CF

Posted by Rich Schwartzman on January 20, 2020

Students at CF Patton Middle School use a loom and plastic grocery bags to make sleeping mats for the homeless in Philadelphia.

It was another Day of Service in honor of Martin Luther King for students in the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District. While there were no classes in observance of the civil rights leader, it was, as the district says, “a day of service to others.”

As has been the case for the past four years, students at Unionville Elementary School made fleece blankets for children with long-term illnesses at Nemours/A.I. DuPont Hospital for Children. According to Principal Michelle Lafferty, it’s the fourth year for the “Blankets for Buddies” program. Ironically, she said, a UES student wound up in AI DuPont Hospital last year and was given one of the UES blankets while there.

It’s “Blankets for Buddies” at Unionville Elementary School

CF Patton Middle School students had a two-part project. One part was to put together survival kits for kids arriving at the Domestic Violence Center of Chester County. Principal Steve Dissinger said the items were collected during a three-week period.

The other project had students make sleeping mats for the homeless of Philadelphia. Students used looms and more than 900 single-use plastic grocery bags for the mats.

Students at Hillendale partnered with three organizations — Julee Cares, an organization that makes handmade surgical caps for kids, STEHM, a transitional home for women and children, and Luther House, an organization that provides meals for the elderly. The students learned about the organizations and created artwork and gathered supplies for those organizations.

Pocopson Elementary students made comfort parcels for children in local hospitals and for those in homeless shelters.

Chadds Ford Elementary School students continued that school’s tradition by creating a Mitchell Teacher Supply Closet for CFES’s sister school — Mitchell Elementary, in Philadelphia.

High school students from UHS took part in a variety of programs with organizations such as Project C.U.R.E., Empty Bowl Workshop, Luther House, Exton Adult Care, the Kennett YMCA and the Friends Association for Care and Protection of Children.

About Rich Schwartzman

Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.