Seneca Valley students in the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) Club present their three handmade quilts for the Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh as a show of their support after the shooting that killed 11 people in October. More than 400 individual, decorative patches were used to create these quilts.

PITTSBURGH — Seneca Valley students on Wednesday did their part to help those affected by the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh.

Seneca Valley's Family, Career and Community Leaders of America Club handmade three quilts to show their support for the synagogue, which was the scene of an Oct. 27 shooting that killed 11 people.

Alex Speck, Tree of Life's program director, met with the students who were presenting and donating their projects on Wednesday at the Rodef Shalom Congregation in Pittsburgh.

Senior Kathryn Messer said the project was important to the club because they wanted to show their support for their community.

“We see that they're hurting and struggling,” Kathryn said. “We wanted to just give them something to make them happy.”

FCCLA Adviser Tiffany Smietana said the girls didn't have a sewing background, “but they wanted to learn,” so they could give this gift to Tree of Life.

The club extended an invitation to all of the Seneca Valley community to create a square for the quilt, Smietana said, and they expected to put together 80 patches for a large quilt. Instead, the Seneca Valley school district and community produced more than 400 patches to total the three decorative quilts.

This is an excerpt — read the full story in Thursday's Butler Eagle.