North Hills HS Students 'Sew' Into Community Service
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ROSS TOWNSHIP (KDKA) -- Some local teens are using their fingers, not for texting, but to do good for others.
They're part of the newly-formed "Sew Fabulous" club at North Hills High School, a group of young women and men who love sewing and love community service even more.
The club was the idea of senior Amanda Fortwangler who had been talking with Family and Consumer Sciences teacher Jessica Hoffman about forming the group since last school year.
"Over the summer, we talked about it and at the beginning of the school year we decided to start the club together," said Fortwangler when KDKA visited the class to watch the students working on their latest project.
"Lovey Bunnies" are colorful baby blankets with "bunny" faces sewn on that will be given to new mothers coming to their postpartum visits at UPMC Passavant Hospital. Hoffman got the idea for the project after talking with a friend who is a nurse there.
The students have already completed other successful projects, including sewing warm fleece hats for distribution to the homeless or others in need of winter outerwear. They also made dresses out of pillowcases that were donated to girls in Africa.
Senior Alyssa Collins says they were all surprised when they heard back from the organization that distributed the dresses.
"We got a postcard from them and that was cool," said Collins. "We didn't expect it, because, I mean, it's in Africa. Knowing that little girls are wearing dresses we made, that feels good."
Fortwangler agreed.
"It's not just on a local scale, it's globally that we're impacting people, and that's really cool to me," she said.
The students say while they enjoy making the projects, they feel that they're getting more back than they're giving.
"All anyone talks about anymore is the bad things that are going on," said Collins. "I wanted to do something positive. When I go to bed at night, I know I helped the community. I know I helped to make the world a better place."
Their teacher is very proud.
"I absolutely love my field. We do everything and anything to help everybody," said Hoffman. "Having these girls and boys come in on their own time, want to do their own projects, it really makes me happy that they want to take part in something like this."
