St. Angela Merici first graders make recycled art to help babies in Japan

First graders at St. Angela Merici recently learned that one good deed can create a positive “ripple” felt by people living thousands of miles away.

After the Carnival break, the first graders practiced the environmental “three Rs” of “reduce, reuse and recycle” by taking items that normally would end up in the trash can and incorporating them into pieces of art or practical items.

They could have rested on their laurels, but they didn’t stop there.

At St. Angela’s first Lenten fish fry, the first graders sold their recycled creations, raising $307. They brainstormed with their teachers – Faith Kyame and Diane Sauviac – on what to do next.

“We talked about a lot of different ways we could spend the money,” Kyame said. “Nobody wanted to spend the money on himself. Nobody said, ‘Let’s go have a pizza party or an ice cream party.’”

When the vote revealed that “children” and “the earthquake and tsunami in Japan” were the first graders’ two greatest concerns, they decided to use the money in a way that would help both: by purchasing baby clothes, diapers, wash cloths and other essentials for newborn babies in Japan.

“We wrapped it up in these little blankets and then we clipped it with a baby pin,” explained first grader Catherine Dufour of the care packages’ color-coded “wrapping paper” – a blue blanket for boys and a pink one for girls.

“Maybe they lost their supper. Maybe they lost their pets, too,” worried Hayley Boos.

First-grade members of St. Angela’s Daisy Girl Scout troop shopped for the baby items and wrapped them for shipment. In all, they had enough money to make eight care packages.

Class members described some of the pieces they sold to make the project happen, such as Nicholas Long’s bulletin board, made out of corks; Michael Soignet’s pencil holder, made from a soup can and Mardi Gras beads; and Gabrielle Bergeron’s fish sculpture.

“I cut a wire open and pulled little things out of it to make the little fins,” Gabrielle explained. “I used a can opener to cut the mouth and the eyes, and I cut out little circles from a cardboard box and spray-painted them to make the scales,” she said.

The packages were sent to Japan with additional baby supplies collected by Kyame’s service group, “Friends of the Poor,” based at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Trinity.

“You know how I feel about the people that had an earthquake in Japan?” asked Kayla Story. “I feel very sad because they lost a lot of things, like their houses, or their favorite dolls or their clothes. It feels good to help them, to send baby clothes for them.”