Latest news with #FranklinElementarySchool
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Franklin Elementary students support pediatric patients
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — Students at Wichita's Franklin Elementary School raised more than $2,000 for pediatric patients at Via Christi St. Francis hospital. The students held a coin drive. The money collected bought instruments and therapy kits for the young patients. Amy Gunderson, the nursing manager of the St. Francis pediatric unit, went to Franklin Elementary on Monday to thank the children. She said the toys are very important for the patients. 'This means the world to them,' she said. 'This may be the only bright spot in their day. The musical instruments that they're bringing in, the therapeutic toys to help with their breathing exercises, it makes doing the things in the hospital that are hard, it makes them kind of fun and lets them be a kid at the hospital while also receiving the treatment that they need.' Derby's dinosaur tourist attraction simplifies pricing The teacher who supervised the project wants students to remember their good deed. 'I hope that one, they remember the feelings that they had. They should be prideful. They should feel impressed with themselves, and I hope that they remember these experiences as they go out into the world and into middle school and high school,' Erin Buster, Franklin Elementary music teacher and ambassador sponsor, said. She said this is the most money students have raised for a school service project. For more Kansas news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news by downloading our mobile app and signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track 3 Weather app by clicking here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
09-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Sterling High School scarf-knitting project benefits local elementary students
Mar. 8—STERLING — A group of Sterling High School students are learning a new skill as part of a service project that started more than 100 miles from Sterling. SHS English teacher Lauren Fritz said the Knitty Gritty Project teaches students how to knit scarves, which are then donated to local elementary schools. Fritz's students recently donated 105 scarves to Franklin Elementary School — enough for every first-grade student. Students begin knitting in late August and continue until winter break. However, Fritz said, the kids who stick with the project enjoy it so much that they often knit regularly in their free time. "I just teach them how to knit, but then they go home and teach themselves everything else," Fritz said. "I have one girl this year who knitted 30 scarves. The kids run with it, which is amazing. Then, I have kids that will knit things like that purse, which I did not teach them. They just figure it out." Fritz said the project was started in Solon, Iowa, by Andrea Velasquez and her seventh-grade students in 2003. "When 9/11 occurred, there was a woman that was a part of Flight 93," Fritz said. "Her name was Lauren Grancolas, and she was pregnant. She was in the middle of writing a book about teaching yourself a new skill. One of the things in her unfinished book was teaching yourself to knit. So, her husband sent the book to Andrea's class, and they started the project that way." Velasquez kept the project going, and when the tragic Sandy Hook School shooting occurred in December 2012, her students wanted to donate their scarves. However, Fritz said, this was at the point when the Sandy Hook community was no longer taking donations. So, the kids donated the scarves to local elementary school students of low socio-economic status. In 2020, Velasquez moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where she continued the project with Fritz, who also was teaching in Cedar Rapids at the time. Fritz, a 2015 SHS graduate, moved back to teach at SHS in 2023 and brought the program with her. "I teach them either at their lunch, my prep or if they're finished early in class," Fritz said. "The teachers here have been amazing. Our kids can knit in class, but when they say, 'OK, materials away,' they put them away. We have no issues with that. So, you'll see kids walking around the school with knitting supplies." Since then, Fritz has expanded the project to include SHS's Life Skills students, fostering inclusion by integrating students with disabilities with their general education peers. "If I have a kid in Life Skills that messed up, I'll have one of my students help them fix it on the fly," Fritz said. "That's great because then they're engaging with each other, they're helping, and they're learning how to interact with a student that has a disability when they generally don't get that opportunity." Before her students begin knitting this year, Fritz is having them choose where the scarves will go by having them research which local schools are in need. Fritz said the project keeps stocked with knitting needles and supplies thanks to local donations and a yearly grant from the Sterling Schools Foundation. To make a donation, email Fritz at lfritz@
