Archive: Around Town

Nearly a decade ago, two Lehman Alternative Community School (LACS) students approached math teacher Sara Arnold with an idea for a new group that would incorporate their love for knitting and crafting with a fundraising component. Arnold agreed and together they created the Fiber Arts Committee with students creating handmade items to sell at local craft fairs. The funds they raise support many school-wide fiber arts projects, including the Quilting Project, Felting for Fun, Open Sew, Refurbished Fashion, and Knitting and Crocheting.

This spring, the Fiber Arts Committee and its current advisor Kal McMannis, LACS Humanities teacher, applied for an Ithaca Public Education Initiative (IPEI) Red and Gold Grant in order to restock much-needed supplies. The students voted on what materials were needed most, and the group was awarded funds for sewing machine maintenance, storage bins, thread, and supplies such as scissors, needles, and seam rippers.

“The IPEI money is so valuable to us because we can do cool experiential learning at LACS,” Arnold said.

LACS Committees meet twice per week and are a way for students to earn student governance credit and to connect school and community. The mixed-age groups allow students to experience mentoring relationships and engage in real-world decision-making activities.

“The purpose of Committees at LACS is to teach students to be community leaders who live and work cooperatively with others by learning to cooperate in group decision making, developing positive interpersonal skills, setting goals, accomplishing important tasks for the school, working at community building, and engaging in self-reflection,” McMannis said in her grant application.


This spring, the Fiber Arts Committee has been making jewelry, key chains, scarves, bags and headbands, which they market and sell to raise funds for more fiber arts-related school projects.

“They’re gaining life skills,” McMannis said. “They are learning math and geometry.  And there’s a media component where students work on advertising and sales.”

One day in early June, Pearl Wood, a 6th grader, practiced a “spiral staircase” friendship bracelet, a pattern she learned from a fellow Committee member. “I didn’t know how to do this before,” she said.

Seventh-grader Mycena Phillips said one of her favorite accomplishments as part of the Committee was learning how to knit a cowl scarf using a cable pattern.  “I like to do crafts and I like to knit,” she said. “It was fun to work on friendship bracelets and I also got to make jewelry.”

Other students explored how to use sewing machines and work with double pointed needles.

“We have different levels of advancement,” McMannis said. “They can make sure they’re doing work that’s at the level of their skill ability.”

Both Arnold and McMannis noted that programs like this one give students the opportunity to share different strengths that might not surface in a traditional class.

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