Children contribute to quilt project

Marshall Allen

LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE -- La Canada Flintridge children joined thousands

of others in drawing squares expressing peace, hope and love for The

Children’s Quilt.

The Children’s Quilt is a project sponsored by A Reason To Survive, a

San Diego-based nonprofit organization. The group uses the arts to

provide positive outlets for children facing difficult circumstances.

“After Sept. 11, we felt all kids are facing emotional adversity,”

ARTS Executive Director Matt D’Arrigo said.

D’Arrigo, 30, has a background in fine arts and started his

organization about a year ago. The arts have played an important role in

helping him deal with adversity, he said.

On Saturday morning at La Canada United Methodist Church, kids used

markers to draw on 1-by-1-foot squares of fabric. The squares were sewn

together, and will be combined with the squares of other children, to

create 10-by-10-foot sections containing 100 squares. So far, about 8,000

children from 15 states have contributed, D’Arrigo said. The quilts will

be on display in New York City at the first anniversary of the Sept. 11

attacks, and in museums around the country.

The artistic expressions of peace, love and hope have evolved as time

goes on, D’Arrigo said. Earlier squares drawn in October and November

were on display at the church. They included images of planes crashing

into buildings and the two towers of the World Trade Center. One had the

following poem: “Roses are red, violets are blue, I am sad, how about

you?”

Squares drawn Saturday contained more general symbols of peace, love

and hope. Laurel Fuller, 10, drew a dove on her square.

“Everyone is hoping for peace and I drew a dove as the symbol of

peace,” she said.

Katharine Henry, 6, wrote the words to “America the Beautiful” on her

square, along with a red heart and the statement “I love America.”

Katharine’s mother, Marie Quick Henry, is responsible for bringing the

quilting project to La Canada Flintridge.

“I thought it was a good idea to give children an outlet for their

emotions,” she said.