LifeSchoolHouse Blanket Project builds community in Nova Scotia

The Life School House Project makes blankets for those in need.

The LifeSchoolHouse Blanket Project brings together volunteers who donate their time and materials to make quilts for local charities and community groups in Nova Scotia.

“LifeSchoolHouse is a skill sharing model, where we bring community members together to help them learn new skills but also to reduce social isolation,” executive director Melissa Boucher-Guilbert said.

Jennifer and Scott DeCoste started LifeSchoolHouse in 2018.

Each month the group meets in the community room of the Kiwanis building at Grahams Grove in Dartmouth.

“Today we have about 10 volunteers who came together to make blankets,” Boucher-Guilbert said. “Some people drop off some material that they have on hand that they no longer use.”

Each volunteer has an important role.

“Some folks are cutting fabric, others are stitching it together, some are finishing some quilts that will be ready to donate to the organization that the group has chosen together,” said Boucher-Guilbert.

The blanket project is in its fourth year, with each year making more and more quilts.

So far this year, they have made just over 100, a volunteer said.

“Right now, we currently make and donate blankets to Adsum House, to palliative care and cancer care, Holly House, and we’ve recently added Northwood,” the volunteer said.

The blankets symbolize someone who cares for the person receiving it, she said.

“Knowing that a bunch of people have come together to form their own little community within the community and have thought about what they’re going through and in some way shows that we care,” the volunteer said.

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