Schools
Lutherville Lab’s First-Graders Present Handmade Quilts to Volunteer Fire Department
The quilts will be given to fallen firefighter Mark Falkenhan's widow and children.
The first-grade classes at presented quilts they made for the family of fallen firefighter/paramedic Mark Falkenhan to the this morning.
Read about the quilt-making project .
Third Lt. David Wilmot, whose son Samuel is a first-grader at Lutherville, was on hand to receive the quilts on behalf of the Falkenhan family.
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Wilmot said to the children, “What makes these quilts so special is that anyone can buy a quilt at the store, but when a quilt is made by someone special, with heart and with love, by all of you guys, you can’t buy these quilts in the store. These are one of a kind.”
The quilts were made from artwork that the children drew with crayon directly onto cotton squares. Sara Mullan, a first-grade teacher, recruited her mother Kate, a quilter, and several other quilters from Bear’s Paw Fabrics in Towson to help sew the pieces together.
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The children saw the quilts for the first time Thursday.
“No, mine is the butterfly,” one student said.
“There, mine is the flowers,” said another.
The students were instructed to make the quilts “to make someone happy” and for a “special person,” unaware that the gifts would be given to Falkenhan’s family.
“There’s a lot of special people in the fire department, but there’s one that we know very well that’s a hero,” Wilmot said. “I know that he and his wife and his children are going to think these quilts are the greatest thing.”
It was a 95-degree day today, but Lutherville’s first-graders had one word on their minds—“cool.”
Alexandra Alatzas, 7, said, “It was fun and the quilts were really, really cool.”
Chloe Tutchton, 6, said, “I think it’s really cool that it’s going to a firefighter.”
Nathan Lewis, 6, summed up the experience in one word, which was, of course, “cool.”
The children sang a thank you song for the fire department (see video).
“The community support for Lutherville, the fire department and the Falkenhan family through all this has been absolutely fantastic,” said Wilmot. “And for the local elementary school, that these young children were able to help out and support in a special way, it’s absolutely incredible.”
