Waldorf School Teams Up

With Save The Children

The Housatonic Valley Waldorf School has teamed up with Save the Children.

Knit One, Save One is a national grassroots initiative of the global humanitarian organization Save the Children and the Warm Up America Foundation launched in September 2008. The campaign sought to engage knitters and crocheters to take action for the four million newborns who die each year in poor countries from preventable and treatable causes.

Campaign participants were asked to make a cap to keep a newborn in Africa or Asia warm, and write a personal note to then President-elect Barack Obama urging him to do more to increase newborn survival globally.

The Newtown school is known for its strong practical arts curriculum where all students learn to knit in the first grade and master crocheting, cross stitch, woodworking, and beeswax and clay modeling by the eighth grade. The practical arts, or handwork curriculum, in a Waldorf school help support the academics by strengthening fine motor skills and hand/eye coordination, increasing focusing ability and instilling a deep sense of appreciation, accomplishment, and students’ confidence in their ability to create something beautiful and practical.

The children were thrilled to be able to put their skills to use for such an important cause.

From thousands of participants such as these students, 100,000 caps are on their way to being delivered to mothers and their babies in Asia and Africa.