Visit to Kentucky Humane Society

Today we took a field trip to the Kentucky Humane Society to deliver our donations and see the facility. We were able to donate about 20 handmade pet beds or blankets. Thanks to "Aunt Tessie" from New York for sending us the pet afghans! They will make such a difference!

The beds and blankets in the cages help the animals feel less stressed and their calmer demeanor makes them more adoptable. Along with the beds, we also dropped off supplies of paper towels, peanut butter, and a variety of pet supplies. We were able to make a monetary donation of over $280, raised during our Dance Dance Revolution Tournament and a Dress Down for a Cause day. Thanks to everyone who helped us help the animals.

Below are some pictures from our day. After we arrived, we listened to a brief presentation from the education director, Valerie Merrifield. We then toured the facility and interacted with the adult dogs and cats and kittens. Since the puppy room was closed for "deep cleaning," we were given the special treat of having a puppy to play with in the conference room and KHS t-shirts to take home. All in all, we had a wonderful time and felt good about our small contribution to this worthy cause.

We first toured the adult dog area. We were given treats to feed the dogs
and encouraged to ask them to "sit" first before rewarding them with the treat.

"Sit!" "Good boy!"

Many of the dogs were very excited and eager to interact.

More sitting...


Next we visited the cat area.
We were allowed to take out and hold the kittens.


This kitten's name was "Clueless."


Cuddling the kittens... We had to use hand sanitizer before touching
each animal to prevent the spread of germs between the animals.

The adult cats were not allowed out of the cage, but we could
open the doors and pet them if they acted interested.

Back in the conference room we got to meet "Cody."
He was a young 8 week old puppy.

The students formed a tight circle so Cody couldn't "escape."
He was allowed to run around the circle and be petted
by whomever happened to be close.

We had a great time at the Kentucky Humane Society and will continue to make projects to help the pets. The education director had a recipe for dog treats that we could have made, but we ran out of time and had to come back to school...darn!

Dancing for a Cause

The Dance Dance Revolution Tournament was a big success and a lot of fun! Over 30 competitors came out to dance to help the Kentucky Humane Society. Qualifying Rounds were held after school on Tuesday, February 25th through Thursday, February 27th.

Competitors entered in one of three levels: Beginner, Intermediate, or Expert. We used Dance Dance Revolution Superonova on all stations (we had three set up). Qualifiers could choose the song they wanted for their "official" score.

Two "expert" players practice against each other in my classroom.

Students completed their qualifying rounds after school.


A few teachers got in on the fun!


Some players did really well, even though they had never played DDR.

On Friday, February 29th, the Finals Tournament was held in the Commons Room. The top eight qualifiers in each level competed in an elimination bracket that ended with just one winner! Song selection was set on "random," so students did not know what song they would get.

The crowd cheered on their favorite dancers!

In the Expert level, there were just three competitors, so they went first in a round robin schedule. In the first head-to-head round, our talented dancers amazingly received EXACTLY the same score. The tie game had to be decided by the number of "perfects" scored.

The game was projected on a big screen on the stage.
Lights were dim for a great atmosphere!

With single elimination looming, competitors were intensely focused.


Parents and teachers stayed to watch the fun.


By the end of the competition, many people were really dancing up a sweat!

Everyone did great and had a lot of fun. The three winners each won a $20 gift card to GameStop (video game store) and a ribbon.

Beginner Level Winner - Aleckxis

Intermediate Level Winner - Sydney

Expert Level Winner - Michael

Over the course of the week, we raised $110 from entry fees and another $169 for a Dress Down day, for a total of about $280 for the Kentucky Humane Society! We'll be delivering that along with donations and pet beds on our field trip there next week. A lot of fun for a great cause!

Help for Homeless Animals

We are starting another project shortly to support the Kentucky Humane Society. We will be raising money through a Dance Dance Revolution Tournament and collecting items from their wish list as well. I'm hoping we can raise at least $300 through the tournament and collect lots of donated items as well.

As for us, we will be making pet beds and pet-ghans to donate. It has been noted that animals that have some sort of comfort item in their cages are more calm and thus more likely to be adopted. See my earlier post on how we make the pet beds. We have about 5 done already and hopefully can make at least 5 more before the middle of March when we'll drop off our items.

Below is a video I recently made to share during a middle school assembly about the problem of animal homelessness. We will also have a speaker from the Humane Society visit in March to share more information about their work. I hope we educate a lot of students and help the animals as well.

Spy A Guy Knitting

So our first project for the New Year is to get some guys knitting with our group. In past years, we have always had a few boys who were interested in learning to knit. Many find it interesting from a technical point of view (how does knitting "work", how do you get the yarn to turn into something). For some reason, we've had NO boys this year so far.

Well on Monday, we introduced a challenge to the middle school, "Spy A Guy Knitting" Week. I shared this neat video with the kids which raised quite a few eyebrows and got a few laughs....

For the challenge, next week, if another teacher sees a boy knitting in public (during his free time, like recess, or in a class if allowed by the teacher), they will send me an email with the name. Every day, each boy "sighted" gets one entry into a drawing which will be held at the end of the week. The prize will be an iTunes gift card (definitely motivating for guys and girls!).

This week they were supposed to see me to pick up knitting needles and yarn and get a lesson if needed. After a day of silence, finally one brave fifth grade boy came in to get supplies. That same day, I had a few more boys ask for needles and yarn. From then it has snowballed! As of today, over FORTY sets of needles and yarn have been given out. We have two advisee groups whose boys have joined in, and today we gave them and one male advisor a knitting lesson. I am really excited by the momentum that's started and can't wait to see if they'll keep it up next week.

The project they are working on is a 4" garter stitch square. I tried to give out size 7 needles and cast on from 16-20 stitches (depending on the needle size given). I also knit two rows for them to help them focus on just learning the knit stitch. They are making good progress so far and I'm eager to see how many squares are finished. We will use the squares to make bean bags, which we will donate to the local children's hospital.

Here is the bulletin board I created for the project. I tried to put up as many pictures of men or boys knitting that I could find, some serious and some humorous, like the artist Mark Newport knitting his Spiderman costume. I also found some easy patterns boys might like to make if they choose to continue knitting.

Lastly, I searched for info on celebrity male knitters just to show them cool guys knit too! So far, it seems to be working. Go guys!

Giving from the Hand and Heart

It has been a LONG silence, but we have been very busy over the last few months! Our main project has been to knit and crochet scarves for The Center for Women and Families, a local domestic violence and rape crisis center here in Louisville.

We had about 60 scarves left over from Bearcat Carnival in September, so I talked to a representative at the Center and found they had approximate 70 women in residence at the downtown shelter and at least 30 more in some of the satellite facilities in our area. Our goal was to put together at least 100 gift bags containing a handmade scarf and some travel-sized toiletry items. I started soliciting help from other adults in our school community and got lots of help from teachers, office staff, and even parents. I also taught a few willing co-workers to knit so they could help out as well!

In November, we invited Joann Rowan, one of the education coordinators to speak to our group. She shared many sobering statistics with the girls, one of which was that 1 in 3 women will be a victim of domestic abuse in her lifetime. After hearing that, the girls looked around at each other and one asked, "You mean that of the three of us at this table, one of us will probably be a victim of abuse?" and Ms. Rowan nodded and said, "Unfortunately, yes." After the presentation, a few girls put together a Powerpoint that shared what they learned and asked for support of a bake sale we were planning. The money from the bake sale would be used by the Center for a new holiday program. They asked for donations of $25 gift cards. The cards will be used by mothers at the Center for holiday shopping and allow them the dignity of being able to buy gifts directly for their own children.

Our bake sale raised over $200. With that money and additional funds, Stitch for a Cause was able to purchase twelve $25 gift cards.

Today, was the culmination of our efforts this fall. Parent volunteers drove nine students to the main office of the Center for Women and Families on S. 2nd Street and we dropped off 111 gift bags. It was very rewarding and the students were excited to be giving away something they had worked hard on and that would make someone happy.