Students ask for community support for Christmas project
Karen Peterson
Florist Connie Plaissay helps St. Ignatius Middle School students create holiday boughs of cedar, pine and fir for the Dogs With Wings annual fundraiser. With the proceeds, students purchase Christmas gifts for children in need.
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson/Valley Journal Jayden Simmons, 10, measures out the greens with his arm to make a wreath.
Karen Peterson
Volunteers cut ribbon for decoration.
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson/Valley Journal Students help make holiday decorations to support the Dogs with Wings project.
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local.
You are now reading
1 of 3 free articles.
ST. IGNATIUS – Imagining Christmas morning without a present under the tree was a sad thought for a group of students at St. Ignatius Middle School, so they went to work to prevent that from happening for at least a dozen kids.
“We are doing this to bring joy and happiness to other children,” said Lanie Lammers, sixth grader.
The students’ holiday project involves making fresh wreaths out of western cedar, ponderosa pine, Douglas fir and other spruce trees. They are currently working to sell those wreaths to people in the community until they are gone.
The kids use the money from wreath sales to buy presents for children in need. The first project of this kind started at the school about a dozen years ago. People dubbed the group “Dogs with Wings” for their generosity and connection to the school’s mascot.
This year’s project started with a trip to visit Salish elders to ask for a blessing for the project because the kids would be collecting fresh tree boughs from tribal wilderness land.
With the blessing, the kids went to visit the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Council to ask if they could collect boughs on tribal lands. The council said yes and sent along CSKT Tribal Forestry members Ronnie and George Orr to help.
On Thursday, Nov. 16, the students put on their work gloves and went up to an area near Jocko Road with a lot of trees. The tribal forestry employees cut big boughs out of the trees and stacked them up for the kids.
“We cut the boughs so they would fit in the bags,” Gabby Smith, seventh grader, said of about a dozen 30-gallon bags filled with greenery.
Lanie Lammers really liked this part of the project.
“We took the pliers and went ching, ching, ching,” she said of the motion of clipping the boughs. “I like hard work, so it was fun.”
The forestry employees set up a campfire for the kids to roast marshmallows and hotdogs after they were done collecting boughs.
Later that evening, several of the students came back to school with friends and family to start the wreath making process. The schoolroom was filled with spruce tree boughs piled on several tables, and tarps were set out on the floor to catch falling limbs. The room was filled with the aroma of fresh pine trees.
Professional florist Connie Plaissay was on hand to teach everyone how to wrap the greens around a metal frame and secure them with paddle wire. “I’m happy to share the knowledge I have for a good cause,” he said.
Plaissay started out working in his parent’s flower shop in Manhattan, New York when he was ten, so he was sure wreath making was a skill the kids could learn.
Jayden Simmons, 10, looked for a section of greens about the length of his forearm. He wanted to create symmetry within the round shape of the wreath. He put the greens on the frame and wrapped wire around them.
“I’ve never done this before,” he said. “I hope it looks good.”
Teacher Valerie Umphrey looked at his wreath and told him it looked wonderful. She was amazed at how full he was getting it.
Umphrey said the students will take one more fieldtrip after the wreaths are all sold to select and buy presents for children in need.
She said the students are trying to raise more than $700 so they can buy gifts for 14 children. The students spend $50 on each child. The students get the children’s names from the Share the Spirit tree, which is a program where anyone can select a name from a tree, usually set up at a bank or grocery store, and buy that child a few gifts. The students also raise money to buy gifts for military veterans.
Dogs with Wings are taking orders for wreaths. Large wreaths are $50 and smaller ones sell for $25. To place an order, call the school at 406-745-3811 ext. 251.
This year’s Dogs with Wings members include: Redrock Bell, BJ Bourdon-Pichette, Lanie Lammers, Jasmine McNutt, Jasmine Simmons, Chance Bockman, Gabby Smith, Thomas Baylor-Mahseelah, Alex Coronel, Maggie Coronel, Kody Dillard, Shayden Friedlander, Conner Gerard, Rudy King, and Ashlee Peterson.
