All Saints students find creative ways to use trash

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

WEBSTER – Weaving plastic bags into mats for the homeless.
Using “trash” to organize the art teacher’s supplies.
These were among ways students at All Saints Academy took care of people and the earth during Catholic Schools Week last week.
The school’s theme for the week was “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.” Students, with help from adults, found creative ways to do that – and to show their gratitude.
Ellen Tagg, marketing/development director, said a parent recommended the recycling focus, but timing was too tight to adopt it for the New England Catholic Schools Week last fall. So the school used it for the national Catholic Schools Week, Jan. 27-Feb. 2.
“We can use what we have to help people … (and) make things more beautiful,” art teacher Beth Crowley told The Catholic Free Press. “We really always do” use materials that could be thrown away – they’re free.
She said using such materials “just seemed to go with our Catholic attitude – taking care of people, taking care of the earth.” Small things matter when added up, she said.
Mrs. Crowley said she heard about crocheting non-recyclable shopping bags into mats for the homeless, but it would be hard to teach students to crochet in a short time. So she had them weave the mats from strips of bags they cut and looped together. They’re still working on finishing the three 6x3-foot mats to donate to Blessed Backpack Brigade in Dudley, which serves those in need, she said.
This project connected with the school’s theme of recycling, and one of the national Catholic Schools Week themes: community. All Saints focused on the neighborhood and school communities, Mrs. Crowley said.
She said their students come from Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, but have Webster Lake (Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg) in common – they go there or know about it. So they learned a song about the lake and made a map of it, painted with their fingerprints, to donate to Webster Public Library.
They also made pictures with their fingerprints for Bishop McManus, the pastors of the school’s parishes, Father William F. Sanders of St. Louis and Father Adam Reid of Sacred Heart of Jesus, Sister Ellen McAdam, a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur who teaches there, and David Perda, superintendent of schools.
For faculty, administrators and staff they sewed cloth bags for “school survival kits” and filled them with such items as “a tootsie roll so you’ll always roll with the punches,”  and “a 100 Grand candy bar because you mean that much to us.” On the bags they stamped the recipients’ names with old rubber stamps they found.     
Students created messages of gratitude for recipients, and read those messages aloud at a school-wide lunch with Bishop McManus, the pastors and the superintendent Friday.
Another school community project was brightening the nurses’ office with the message “Spread love, not germs” and a bulletin board, Mrs. Crowley said.
And students cleaned and reorganized her art room and made a decoration. Among materials they used were paper and cardboard boxes that could have been thrown away.
“I was thrilled and touched and felt incredibly appreciated,” Mrs. Crowley said. “I cried probably 10 times that day.… The kids were so happy to do it for me.”
Students also decorated their campuses with murals that each one colored a part of, “thank you” posters for the pastors and Sister Ellen, and items made from trash, including an egg carton chandelier and cardboard tube trees, Mrs. Crowley said. An “invention convention” in classrooms enabled them to make more items from trash.
They took inspiration for recycling from Dr. Seuss’ book “The Lorax.” (The Lorax has been described as a character that speaks up against corporate greed that threatens the environment.)
Third-grader Joe Chahine said that after they read the book they worked in groups to build a house with “recycling stuff.”
Other third-graders also told The Catholic Free Press about their week.
“We saw a presentation and they talked about why we should recycle,” said Timothy Gardner. “You shouldn’t use styrofoam because it takes 500 years to break down.”
“What I learned is that you can make a lot of stuff with recycled stuff and it’s better to throw … things in the recycling bin than in the trash,” said Danielle Vigeant.
Kaitlyn McQuiston said she learned “that you can always recycle – it would be better for the animals and the ocean, so they don’t get hurt or sick.”