05-02-2025
Local organization helping students with ‘Sew Your Heart Out' project
DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — Crayons to Classrooms is hoping to sew back into students, one heart at a time.
Valentine's Day is less than ten days away and one local organization is spreading the love.
Crayons to Classrooms are distributing pocket hugs, pieces of stuffed fabric used by students to calm themselves or to provide sensory input to help them focus.
'They're soft and plush. They don't make any noise, so they're not a distraction and they come in all different shapes,' says Malena Ball, marketing coordinator at Crayons to Classrooms.
The pocket hugs can be hand-sewn, crocheted or made by a machine.
Crayons to Classrooms has instructions on how to make the pocket hugs on their website. Once someone makes one, they can send them to C2C. The initiative is called 'Sew Your Heart Out,' which will be happening throughout the month of February.
Rachel Miller is an intervention specialist for the Springfield City Schools District. Miller says that most of the students she works with have fine motor needs.
'I have a lot of students who have muscle needs and things. That fine motor is a big issue,' Miller says. 'But nine times out of ten, my kids see pocket hugs that other people have and they want those ones because they have the fun little characters on them or they're a different material or shape.'
'When you donate these pocket hugs, you are putting a product into the hand of the student that is going to get to enjoy that and utilize that to grow and enhance their classroom experience,' Miller says.
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