July 30, 2010
AMS Mother/Daughter Project

Alderete Middle School Students Crochet Residents of the Franklin Heights Nursing Home (223 S. Resler) will be a little warmer thanks to the thoughtfulness of students in the Mother/Daughter (M/D) Program at Jose J. Alderete Middle School (AMS), in the Canutillo Independent School District (CISD). Twenty-two students, their mothers, grandmothers, and teachers met weekly, learned to crochet, and began making lap blankets as part of a community service activity called, Project Warmth. It was made possible through a CISD Service Learning grant. After a month of crocheting, the participants presented 70 blankets to the nursing home residents recently. The students\' goal is to crochet 104 blankets, so that every resident at the nursing home receives one. "We will continue making the blankets until we reach our goal," stated Rose Cereceres, AMS teacher and M/D coordinator. "Thanks to the help and support of many people including students, staff, parents, and community members, we were able to fulfill the students desire to do something special for elderly residents in our community, as well as provide a need," said Cereceres. The CISD Service Learning program provides students the opportunity to apply what they are learning in the classroom to a real world concern that they see in their community. CISD has been a recipient of the Texas Center for Service Learning, a K-12 School-Community Partnership Grant Program, since 2003. "It was a great experience for our students to actually learn how to crochet and make a tangible item to give to someone. Many students were proud of their finished product and were excited to be able to give it to someone who would appreciate it," added Cereceres.