Members of the American Association of University Women work with Stout Middle School students Nov. 12 on a service project which uses recycled materials to create crafts, which will be sold at craft shows to fund AAUW local college outreach programs.
Stout Middle School student Hisham Khaled, 14, works on a service project Nov. 12 using recycled materials to create book art gnomes, which the Dearborn chapter of the American Association of University Women will sell at local craft shows to help fund AAUW local college outreach programs.
Crafty, eco-friendly creations
By SUE SUCHYTA
Times-Herald Newspapers
DEARBORN – Students at Stout Middle School, a green eco-friendly school, worked with members of the Dearborn chapter of the American Association of University Woman Nov. 12 on a craft service project.
Green schools encourage environmentally friendly practices, so the book art gnomes, which are made from recycled materials that might otherwise end up in landfills, are a good fit for the students and AAUW members.
Mary Nameth, AAUW – Dearborn vice president of membership, used to teach at Stout, and she said she wanted to start with an easy project that will provide students with instant gratification before they move on to more difficult projects, like crocheted mats for unhoused people made from plastic bag yarn, known as plarn, in the future.
Some of the resulting book art gnome crafts will be sold at local craft shows to help raise funds for the Dearborn AAUW’s outreach programs at Henry Ford College and the University of Michigan-Dearborn.
The books used to create the gnomes were culled from the AAUW’s annual book sale donations, and are usually books are missing covers, written in or otherwise damaged.
Stout Middle School student Esa Omar (left), 13, works on a service project Nov. 12 using recycled materials to create book art gnomes, which the Dearborn chapter of the American Association of University Women will sell at local craft shows to help fund AAUW local college outreach programs.
The AAUW members hope to start a weekly craft club with the students, who could then sell some of their crafts to help fund projects at their school. The students will also receive a letter to confirm their participation in a public service project, which they will be encouraged to accumulate as they go through high school and prepare to apply to higher education.
Nameth was pleased that the students were chatting face-to-face, away from their cell phones, while they were working on the craft project.
“They’re socializing, but they are getting something done at the same time,” she said.
Student Hisham Khaled, 14, said he chose to take part in the service project because it sounded like a good and fun thing to do.
“I also think it’s good for the environment to repurpose things instead of throwing them away, because billions of things end up in landfills every single day,” he said. “It’s better to reuse and make the earth greener, because the earth’s polluted and climate change is happening.”
Student Esa Omar, 13, admitted that while he appreciated getting out of class, it was enjoyable to socialize while working on the service project.
“It’s fun to do this,” he said, gesturing toward the book art gnomes.
AAUW member Oni Mitchell said she was having fun working with the students on the service project.
“I’m at a table with all girls, and they were a little discouraged, because it’s kind of a tedious craft in the beginning, and we just tried to make it a little more fun,” she said. “And then, once one of them got done, they started helping each other.”
Mitchell said the cooperation she saw was “a joy.”
She said the girls chatted in Arabic while they worked on the project, so she wasn’t able to converse with them most of the time, but she did try to talk with them a little bit.
“They were busy, and I think they were a bit overwhelmed,” Mitchell said. “But I love it, and it was great.”
Mary Nameth (front right), vice president of membership for the Dearborn chapter of the American Association of University Women, works with Stout Middle School students Nov. 12 on a service project which uses recycled materials to create crafts, which will be sold at craft shows to fund AAUW local college outreach programs.
Above and below, Stout Middle School students work on a service project Nov. 12 using recycled materials to create book art gnomes, which the Dearborn chapter of the American Association of University Women will sell at local craft shows to help fund AAUW local college outreach programs.
Book art gnomes, created by the Dearborn Chapter of the American Association of University Women and Stout Middle School students Nov. 12, as part of a service project using recycled materials, will be sold at local craft shows to help fund AAUW local college outreach programs.