In 2009, Students and seniors worked to create a quilt that represents the Coast way of life, and to have youth and seniors working together and learning from each other.

The community quilt project started in Melinda Gallichon’s social science class.  They were discussing the loss of traditional ways of life and the traditional skills that were being lost.  Students worked on a paper quilt with each square representing traditional ways of life.  Not long after, the class decided to learn how to make a real quilt and 8 adults and seniors in a local quilting group volunteered to share their knowledge with the students.  The CLC coordinator, Molly Organ recounted a story about an after-school quilting session where adults were having adult conversations and youth were having youth conversations, but after a while the conversations merged with a discussion of how “the walls were insulated|” with old catalogues, paper and anything to keep the heat in.  The students were fascinated by this information about how their ancestors lived.

This project was supported in part by a CHSSN grant that allowed for material, thread and snacks to be purchased.

Click on the link to view a presentation about the Mecatina CLC Quilting Project.