There are 276 shopping days 'til Christmas but one Heritage Woods secondary school teacher has giving on the mind.
English teacher Liz Orme has less than nine months to get 2,000 gift bags sewn for a charity project for her children's school.
Orme, whose kids attend a New Westminster elementary school, has taken on the job of organizing the production of gift bags for the school's annual gift program. Each year, the students get to purchase for a few coins gently used items for gifts for their family.
Orme, who is involved in her school's PAC, said the gifts are usually wrapped in holiday paper but this year parents decided to make reusable gift bags instead and, thus, a sewing project of gargantuan proportions was born.
"It is a big project," Orme admitted, "150 bags a month."
To get the project going, Orme engaged the help of Heritage Woods textiles teacher Susan Cawker, whose students are sewing some of the bags during class and during their breaks. Students from New Westminster secondary school are sewing bags, too, and Orme said her mother has even made 57 bags.
While the project is on target, Orme said she still needs donations of fabric in Christmas or kid-friendly patterns and suggested people drop off their extra material at Heritage Woods secondary, 1300 David Ave., Port Moody.
