Third-graders craft a quilt for Greenwood Lake’s centennial

Greenwood Lake Elementary School teacher Laurie Sanford and her third-grade class created a centennial quilt honoring the village’s history as part of the “Sew What?” club, run by Sanford. She, along with six students from her class (identified only as Hailey, Sophia, Jackie, Aiden, Angel, and Ila) presented the quilt to the Greenwood Lake Village Board at the May 22 board meeting. Before the board saw the quilt, Angel, Aiden, and Jackie gave a speech about what the class had learned and the process of making it.

“This year in ‘Sew What?,’ third graders made a centennial quilt. We each got to choose a quilt square with an image of something from the history of Greenwood Lake. This year in our classes, we had been learning history of Greenwood Lake,” said Angel.

“We had to plan our colors and carefully stitch because some of the images were very detailed. We had help from a wonderful group of volunteers. The volunteers were seniors from the community,” said Aiden.

“Once the squares were finished, Miss Sanford assembled the quilt on the sewing machine. We also got to try out the sewing machine and we were able to make a string bag to take home. We hope you like our quilt. We are dedicating our project to the Village of Greenwood Lake. We would love it if you could find a place to hang it in the Village Hall,” said Jackie to the board.

The students then presented the quilt and showed the squares that they worked on: Angel worked on a square for the air mail, Aiden worked a square for the iron mines, Jackie created a square based on the Midland Railroad, Sophia’s square represented the Greenwood Lake sailboat, Hailey created a square with baseball legend Babe Ruth, and Ila created a square representing the Mountain Ice Company. There were other squares on the quilt, including one for the Greenwood Lake Elementary School.

“There were other students who couldn’t be here tonight, but they worked on all of the other ones,” said Sanford. Finally, the bottom of the quilt included a picture of Sanford’s class. “So maybe if this is hanging in another hundred years, we could see who made this beautiful quilt,” Sanford added.

Sanford expressed thanks for the seniors’ help. “A whole group from the senior center came to help us. And without those people coming and helping, we couldn’t have made this beautiful quilt. So, I really, really, appreciate all of them. Some of them are here tonight and they are just wonderful people who helped so much.”

The class also included a curtain rod to help hang up the quilt in Village Hall. Both the board and the public applauded the class for their hard work. The board loved the quilt. “Thank you very much! That was lovely and it will hang for a hundred years, I hope,” said Mayor Thomas Howley.