YARMOUTH, Maine — School is back in session all over Maine and teachers are working to find creative ways to educate, but also to keep their students safe during the coronavirus, COVID-19 pandemic.
Betsy Melevsky is a kindergarten teacher at the Rowe School in Yarmouth. She had an idea to create 'me bags' for each of her students so they wouldn't be sharing materials during the pandemic.
"Seemed just with everything else going on, for me, just a little too much to take on," Melevsky said.
She mentioned the idea to a friend, and two weeks later that friend's mom delivered.
"She shows up at my door with 14 beautifully handstitched bags," Melevsky said.
Liane Giambalvo has been quilting for nearly four decades and when her daughter mentioned her friend's idea, "I thought that's a piece of cake I can make some bags," she said
So that's exactly what she did, and she said she had "a blast" doing it.
Not only did Giambalvo make these bags, but she filed them with all kinds of 'quiet time' activities for kindergarteners.
"Then I thought well I can't just give her the bags I have to put something in them," Giambalvo said.
She added this isn't just something she enjoyed, but that it's also important to support our public schools.
"I think it is the backbone of America. And that if we don't support our public schools we are not going to have a democracy," she said.
Melevsky will be giving the bags to her students this week and thinks they'll love them just as much as she does.