Quilts & pennies

As long as there have been Sunday schools, youth have been collecting their offerings or using their talents to help others. Some projects are timeless. Here are some activities that seem to be favorites.

Quilting: Take fabric paint, draw on some squares and sew them together. What do you have? A quilt for a local group or Lutheran World Relief. Youth at St. Paul Lutheran Church, Aberdeen, Md., made two quilts to keep people warm. The nurserykindergarten students also made a quilt with their handprints.

Collecting money: Children of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church and School, Albany, Ore., gathered more than a mile worth of pennies to give to ABC House, which helps child victims of abuse. At 16 pennies to a foot, one mile equals 84,480 pennies.

The coins came in by jar, bag and handful. Some children brought their own piggy banks because they wanted to help other kids. Their final tally: $931.83.

Selling stuff. At St. Peter Lutheran Church, Mechanicsburg, Pa., thirdand fourth-graders sold homemade cinnamon ornaments. They sent $1,000 to a school in Haiti-which relies on donations to keep operatingin memory of the people who died during the shooting at Columbine High School, Littleton, Colo.

Gathering supplies: Confirmands at Scandia Lutheran Church, Centerville, S.D., put together 50 midwife kits for Global Health Ministries. Each kit includes a blanket, latex gloves, soap, washcloth, towel, newborn stocking cap and other items. The confirmands provided the soap, and an Aid Association for Lutherans grant supplied the other items.

The group also filled eight shoeboxes with candy, batteries, books, small toys, school supplies and hygiene items. The boxes were given to youth as Christmas gifts.

But that's not all. After studying the fifth commandment-"You shall not kill"-the youth wrote letters to four TV networks asking them to reduce the amount of violence in their programming. Maybe this will become a favorite project for others?