Rotorua emergency housing support: Western Heights High School students make quilts for homeless

From kids to kids.

That's the goal of a project being undertaken by a group of Western Heights High School students.

The Years 10 and 11 students have spent the past few weeks beavering away in their sewing class, cutting and stitching, but their hard work isn't just to get good marks.

The goal is to provide something special and from the heart for children who are staying in emergency housing motels in Rotorua.

They have lovingly made patchwork quilts from recycled fabric and the quilts will be delivered to selected children for Christmas.

The idea was suggested to the students by Rotorua woman Adele Buckley who wanted to provide something practical to help the homeless situation.

"We all know what's happening down Fenton St (with emergency housing motels) and it's hard to see it and not do anything about it. It is not about the attitudes. It about the babies. This is kids making things for kids and it's a practical thing they can roll up and take with them wherever they go."

Buckley has good friends who work on the front line with helping the city's homeless and they would ensure the quilts went to those most in need.

Western Heights High School food fabric and technology teacher Susan Cantlon said the students embraced the idea and enjoyed using recycled fabrics.

"This has been a really awesome opportunity for my students who have really embraced a recycled fashion unit and we've been able to take some fabric that's been donated to us along with stuff that's been in our classroom. We've been able to build on our skills and produce something for someone who is less fortunate than ourselves."

Student Jack Swears, 15, said he was "big on making things eco-friendly" and he loved sewing.

"The fact that it's going to someone makes it even better."

Aimee Evans, 15, said it was a fun project and it was great their work was going somewhere it was needed.

Phillipa Barber, 14, loved the fact it wasn't just a one-off fix.

"It's not like food where you just use it and it's gone."

Meanwhile, Buckley said she was rapt to hear the students had seen the value of what they were doing and had indicated they would like to continue with their quilts in class and in lunch breaks next year to build their stocks to reach more children.