Shade students celebrate Women's History Month
Eighth grade students Samantha Mains (left) and Alexis Custer (right) hold the quilt created by Heidi Klahre's Information Literacy class at Shade-Central City High School. They are flanked by their fellow classmates who also worked on the project, from left, first row: librarian Heidi Klahre, educational consultant Pam Weyant, Sarah Letosky, Natasha Meck, Autumn Fogle, Cayley Gumbita, Jaiden Kimmel. Second row: Shannon Swallow, Elizabeth Rubright, Lauren Jarvis, Rachel Hause, Karley Maurer, Machala Gibbons, Alexis Medva, Myah Koleszarik, Jensen Kimmel and Amber Gibbons. Absent from photo are: Ryleigh Andrews, Courtney Dona, Bella Faidley, Katlyn Havyer and Rikki Hutchinson. (Photo by Kayla Pongrac / May 1, 2013)
After teaching the girls about Women's History Month, she encouraged each of them to pick a female — living or deceased — who has changed America for the better.
Among the famous women the girls chose were poet Maya Angelou, politician Hillary Clinton, TV show host Oprah Winfrey, actress Grace Kelly and former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt.
The students were required to write a paper about the female they chose, and after the papers were turned in, they began working on their individual quilt square designs.
After completing a rough draft on paper, the students transferred their designs to the fabric using fabric markers and Sharpies.
Machala Gibbons dedicated her square to Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross.
"I put a red cross on the square with two inspirational quotes around it," Gibbons said of her quilt square design.
Fellow classmate Autumn Fogle paid tribute to Helen Keller and incorporated braille into her design.
Klahre recruited Shade's educational consultant, Pam Weyant, to help her complete the project. Weyant brought her sewing machine into the library and gave each student an opportunity to help sew the squares together.
The quilt, bearing Shade's school colors (blue and gold), now hangs in the high school library.
"I think this project really helped us learn about inspirational women," Fogle said. "I hope that people will come into the library and appreciate the hard work and amount of time that was put into it."
Klahre said that the hands-on project was not only beneficial for the female students, but also for the entire school.
"Classes will be able to observe this in the future," she said.
Weyant and Klahre want the project to have a lasting effect on the students.
"Hopefully the girls will get a sense that they're not limited to what they can do; hopefully these women will inspire them to try harder and go farther and not let gender interfere with their goals in life," Weyant said.
Klahre said that she's glad that the project turned out so well and that the students seemed to get a lot out of it.
"I think it's important for them to recognize the role that women have played in our country," she said. "And this is a class full of future leaders who are women."