Along with teaching young children how to read, write and wait their turn, schools often believe it is important to teach them to give back.

Students at St. Paul Lutheran School in Fairmont are busy knitting hats, which they will donate to those who have cancer.

Carla Fast, a teacher at the school, said this is the fifth year the entire school, grades K-8, has worked on the project. They start every January.

“We send them to an organization in the cities, Head Huggers. They then distribute them to cancer patients of all ages,” she said.

Fast, an avid knitter herself, also was involved with the project at a previous school where she worked.

The students make the hats by loom-knitting.

“Historically it was called a Jenny-loom,” Fast said. “Evidently in colonial times, a lot of ladies knitted with these circular looms before they knitted with needles.”

The students use a loom and special hook. They wrap the yarn around the loom twice, then pull the yarn up and over and it makes knitting stitches.

Fast said using a loom is easier than using knitting needles.

“The older children learn it much faster and then they teach the young ones,” she noted. “The older kids make a lot of the bigger hats and the younger ones make the smaller hats.”

They use special yarn, Caron Simply Soft, because it is soft and soothing for people going through chemotherapy.

“We’ve been very fortunate. Our adult Bible class every year donates yarn,” Fast said.

She said the students enjoy choosing from all of the different colors of yarn.

The school purchased the looms through grants from Thrivent Financial.

There are about 70 children grades K-8 at the school and each year they’ve made around 100 hats.

Fast said some adults from the church also get involved and knit or crochet hats on their own time and donate them.

Each class has the looms for a couple weeks before they go on to the next class. Fast said the older grades are pretty independent, so the older children will visit the younger classrooms and help them get started on their hats.

She said some students who really get into the project want to add more complicated things to their hats like pom-poms or cuffs.

“It’s new to most kids. But they really like it. I’ve had parents ask what kind of looms to get their kids for Christmas,” Fast said.

In addition to making hats, the school does other service projects. But knitting hats remains a favorite among many of the students.

“I think it means a lot to them to know the hats are going to someone who needs it. They’re learning how to be a servant. We serve Christ by serving others,” Fast said.