Oak Mountain Middle School students cover veterans with love

In Melinda Gargiulo’s family and consumer science classes, the students of Oak Mountain Middle have been working hard. The results are five patriotic quilts for the veterans’ charity Three Hots and a Cot.

With the help of a grant from the Shelby County Schools Foundation, Gargiulo has taught her students each step of making a quilt. The school's chapter of Family, Community and Career Leaders of America (FCCLA) presented their quilts to four military veterans at a school assembly this morning.

“These are beautiful, and we appreciate it so much,” one of the veterans told the students after the assembly.

Three Hots and a Cot provides basic necessities and services for veterans who have had difficulty in adjusting to civilian life, such as homelessness or addiction.

Eighth-graders in Gargiulo’s FCCLA chapter helped piece the final quilts together. Each quilt included the embroidered initials of the students who made it.

“The quilts turned out great," Gargiulo said. "They worked so hard.”

The quilts may not be professional quality, but each was made with respect, love and hope, Gargiulo said. The project is called Covered With Love. 

Covered With Love received help from the Birmingham Quilters Guild. After 280 Living ran a story on the project in November, Gargiulo said community members donated more supplies, a quilting frame and some volunteer hours to help the students create their quilts.

The Oak Mountain Middle School students will make five more quilts next semester, Gargiulo said. They are going to attempt a different style, called rag quilting, that is easier to assemble.