Meriden students help those in need

MERIDEN, Conn. (WTNH) -- Warm heads and warm hearts: some kids in Meriden are getting a lesson by helping those in need.

It's not an art class, if anything it's a lesson in kindness, and it started more than a year ago in the freak Autumn snowstorm.

"Did you lose power in that storm," asked News 8's Kent Pierce.

"Yes," said nine-year-old Jaden Myles.

"For how long," asked Pierce.

"A few weeks," Jaden replied.

"Was it cold?"

"Yes."

So when Hurricane Sandy hit exactly a year later, Meriden's Roger Sherman Elementary sympathized with all those people without power or without homes. They started asking kids to donate winter clothes.

"So these hats, scarves, blankets, gloves that we're collecting will go directly to children on Staten Island who have lost everything and really need these items," said Fallon Wagner, Roger Sherman Elementary.

However, the donations were not exactly rolling in. So they raised some money to make their own hats and scarves.

They were able to go out and get 74 yards of fun fleece fabrics that they cut into patterns and the result is what everyone is working on now.

"So the kids are starting with a block of fleece that is flat and looks like this and they're cutting the fringe, and it will end up looking like this, which is a hat," Wagner said.

"Actually, it's easy because you don't have to sew," said nine-year-old Elyssa West. "And the teacher made it easy and it's not that hard."

Grades one through five are all helping in one way or another, and some teachers will drive everything to Staten Island. The clothes will keep kids there warm, and the kids in Meriden get a nice, warm feeling.

"It makes me feel good because I'm helping other people who are in need and if I was in need they would help us," Jaden said.
 
That's a pretty good lesson for the day.