The Mirror Newspapers Reflecting Life Along The Maumee River
BY NANCY GAGNET | MIRROR REPORTER — Students at Gateway Middle School have been busy making bowties for furry friends in need of a forever home.
Recently, Gateway students have participated in a project making bowties and small blankets for animals at local pet shelters Compassionate Village and the Toledo Humane Society. The bowties were designed to dress pets in their very best for their potential forever families, explained clerk librarian Michelle Davidson, who helped coordinate the effort.
Students worked in the makerspace, where they took part in specific tasks needed to make the bowties, including cutting fabric, sewing, ironing and making sure the work was properly completed.
“These are really lifelong skills,” Davidson said. “Maybe these kids will never sew on a machine again, but if they ever need to, they know the basics.”
Students made several small fleece-tie blankets for the pets as well.
The fabric for the bowties and fleece for the blankets were donated to the school, Davidson said.
The goal was to make 200 bowties, she added.
Gateway students have taken part in several community projects over the past few years, including sewing joey pouches for Australian wildlife, supporting Capes for Kids for children receiving cancer treatment at ProMedica Toledo Children’s Hospital, and making pillowcases and fleece blankets for Project PJ.
“Stepping out of your own zone once in a while to help others is a skill, and I don’t know how many of these kids have that opportunity, so it’s good that they can with this,” Davidson said.
