Global impact Helping Aussie animals feels 'sew' good
JACKSON TWP — They're called bat wraps, but they look like little sleeping bags.
A piece of cloth about 12 inches long ends in a small cushion, which a baby bat will hold onto. Wrapping the cloth around the bat attached to the cushion simulates a mama bat's embrace.
And for bats left orphaned and scorched by recent Australian wildfires, a mama's embrace can be the difference between life and death. “It's for rehabilitation,” said Tiffany Smietana, a family and consumer science teacher at Seneca Valley intermediate and high schools. “Nothing we have will go to waste.”
What members of Seneca Valley's chapter of Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) and Strengthening, Positivity and Reinforcing Kindness (SPARK) “have” is recovery supplies.
Since January, students volunteered their time after school to hand sew, knit and crochet pouches and wraps for baby marsupials, bats and parrots affected by recent Australian wildfires.
“We definitely want to use as much (material) as possible,” said Alyssa Dunning, a junior SPARK student.
Alyssa and junior FCCLA student Ashley Pelloni spent Thursday afternoon cutting fabric for bat wraps and joey pouches. Occasionally, they mixed and matched patterns. Sometimes they didn't. They used material as efficiently as they could. “Our sole goal is not the look,” said Ashley, “but the purpose.”
Every year, FCCLA organizes a service project that allows students to share their talents with the community. Smietana considers the endeavor important for her students because they learn what it means to give without expecting to get anything in return.“Just for them to feel pride in helping the community,” Smietana said.When Smietana and fellow family and consumer science teacher Marie McLachlan ran across the community Facebook group “Relief Crafters of America,” they started reading about a national effort to help Australian animals.Between that and recent news coverage of displaced and burned wildlife, they decided their students could help. “That just kind of fueled the fire,” Smietana said. “To us, it's different from just sending money.”Using family and consumer science skills they learned in and outside of school, students crafted supplies from almost 15 yards of fabric.“A lot of this was donated,” Smietana said. “We're trying to be efficient.”
Some of the material students are using was left over from last year's service project, during which students sewed quilts for victims of the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh.The project is teaching students important lessons, according to Smietana. They're learning to be patient and to work together and problem solve.And the physical skills — sewing, knitting and crocheting — they're using as part of the relief effort can be applied in other areas of their lives.Megan Messer, a sophomore FCCLA student in charge of sewing bat wraps and joey pouches, learned to sew in seventh grade and enjoys it because it always gives her something to do.“Sewing in general is just a good skill to have,” Megan said.Each joey pouch Megan makes takes her seven to 12 minutes. So far, she's made four. She learns to do each pouch faster.McLachlan is also learning. Her mother was an avid knitter and left her knitting supplies to McLachlan. McLachlan's knitting skills got rusty over the years, but she was able to sharpen them by volunteering to knit a parrot sweater.“This is an old-world art form that has been dying,” McLachlan said. “They're learning a skill that's forgotten. That's the coolest part.”
The project also gives McLachlan the chance pass down that art form to students like sophomores Ava Cappella and Rowan Jones. Ava has found crocheting and knitting helps with things like anxiety. “It's really relaxing,” Ava said.For Rowan, preparing supplies for the animals has been an opportunity to become closer with her classmates.“You can bond with people,” Rowan said.Seneca Valley students will wrap up their sewing projects at the end of the month.The next step is to send them to a regional collection hub in Maine, where they'll be examined for quality. From there, they'll be packaged and shipped to Australia. What isn't used for wildfire relief will be donated to Australian zoos and other organizations.“What we have probably won't get used until the end of March or April,” Smietana said. “(But) this little area of Pennsylvania made a global impact.”The SPARK and FCCLA students partaking in the Australian service project are happy to help. They recommend other students look into volunteering their time and effort any way they can.“Always try to help,” Megan said. “You always get something back from the universe.”
