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PLYMOUTH — PA Virtual Charter School students spend most of their weekdays using technology to interact with educators, but during designated Friday activities and recreational outings, students take part in educational and social activities like zoo trips and ice skating. Family Support Coordinator, Dana Ciccotti, said the bulk of student activities focus on service learning, and in January, Plymouth Active Adult Center hosted students during a day of service in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
The students were there to help construct a sleeping bag for The Sleeping Bag Project (thesleepingbagproject.org), a national effort started by the organization My Brother’s Keeper as a way to keep the homeless population warm during winter months.
“They’re out there and they dont have enough blankets, especially in the frigid cold overnight,” Ciccotti said. “It’s not going to be pretty, but if it looked expensive people would steal it, plus its out in the mud and when it’s old they can toss it. It’s using recycled material and providing warmth for someone sleeping outside.”
The event, which was called “Ugly Quilts” (sleeping bags made for the project are often crafted from pieces of unwanted materials), was also open to seniors and acted as a way for the two age groups to interact with and learn about each other.
“We’ve been here at the senior center before because we’ve come to play bingo with them,” Ciccotti said. “We’re just trying to give them that experience; both seniors with kids and kids with seniors.”
“It’s important because it incorporates seniors as well as children and gets them talking rather than sitting at their apartment with their four walls and TV,” said Facility Director, Joyce Rutherford.
One of those seniors was Plymouth resident Betty Thomas.
“This is the first time anything was here like this,” Thomas said. “I think it’s good for the person that’s going to get (the sleeping bag), it’ll help them out immensely.”
As Thomas tied knots into the edge of the sleeping bag, 4th grader Michael Hamel worked alongside her with a sewing needle.
“I’m practicing sewing; on a normal school day I go to math and language arts classes on a computer with a teacher,” Hamel said.
In addition to working on the sleeping bag, students were given the opportunity to pot plants that were taken home by the seniors who attended the event. Cathy Pashinski of Plymouth, who took one of the plants home at the end of the event, spoke to students as they worked with the dirt.
“It was a lot of fun,” Pashinski said. “They were full of questions; one asked me what we did for fun. I told her rollerskating and jumping rope.”
The question Pashinski was asked was tied to the day’s third activity. At the end of their service experience, students were asked to recount what they learned during a brief educational writing exercise.
“We just asked them to introduce themselves then ask a couple questions, like what were some fun activities you did when you were a kid,” Ciccotti said. “It just gives the kids a better idea of what things used to be like; to compare the two worlds and gain some understanding.”
Plymouth Active Adult Center is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and holds bingo every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, along with other activities like the Ugly Quilt service project. For more information, call 570-779-9664.
