ROGERS — Jessica Santillian said she has made six or seven scarves in the past three weeks at school.
“It was hard at first,” she said.
The senior at Crossroads Alternative School learned to make scarves by chaining up the yarn between her fingers and crocheting the loops on her arms in the newly opened Life Skills room operated by Reality Check Inc. at the Annex.
She has sold one scarf. Students who don’t feel a connection to the school find the craft room interesting, Jessica said. Having a few spare minutes to relax with other students keeps them from fooling around in class, she said.
“We have a lot of creative people at the Annex, but we really don’t have a lot of time,” Jessica said.
Finishing a project gives students moments of success to build on, said Beth Bryant, director of Reality Check.
At A Glance
What’s Next?
The school will hold a bazaar where some students will sell their creations. Simply Bazaar will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. Dec. 6 at the Annex, 2922 S. First St. in Rogers.
Source: Staff Report
“It’s changing something inside of them,” Bryant said.
The nonprofit group’s office is inside the Annex. Principal Cindy Ford said she and Bryant discussed the idea of a craft room for the past year. Things finally came together this fall, and the Life Skills room officially opened Oct. 26.
“Every day we have more kids participating,” Ford said.
Jessica was their first student and got an earlier start than her fellow students.
Reality Check instructors typically conduct school workshops that teach students how to set goals and boundaries and to build character. The Life Skills room allows students to set short-term goals and tackle problem solving in an outside-the-box way, Bryant said. More than that, it builds a sense of community, and students can often be heard discussing problems over their projects.
“Maybe they feel like they are failing everywhere else. Maybe things aren’t beautiful in their life,” Bryant said. “The stress just rolls away. … Life gets easier and they begin to open up.”
Students use donated and recycled materials for their crafts. Some students have made button coasters, and several of the boys are sewing neck warmers made of donated fabric. No. 10 cans donated from the kitchen will become luminaries. A couple of volunteers have offered to teach students knitting and pottery.
Some students are participating in the school bazaar in December. A grant from Economics Arkansas will offer them start-up money, supplementing the donated materials in the Life Skills room. They can keep their proceeds after paying back the start-up money.
Junior Carlos Valladares is filling fabric sleeves with rice for his craft project, making microwaveable neck warmers. He and his friends plan to sell them for about $10 each, but he said he isn’t counting on the money.
On Monday he learned to stitch together fabric squares to make the fabric tubes, starting with one in Razorback red. Without the craft room he would have sat in the cafeteria for his entire lunch period without much to do, he said.
“We’re actually doing something instead of sitting around,” Carlos said.