For the past 20 years, Jane Zajaczkowski has passed the time by knitting...
The Knitting Machine
For the past 20 years, Jane Zajaczkowski has passed the time by knitting. She has created well over 100 sets of hats and mittens for the students at Jordak Elementary School.
“I began crocheting mittens for the children when I volunteered with the Children and Books (CAB) reading program,” said Zajackowski. “It was a truly wonderful program that not only sharpened the children’s reading skills, it also instilled a true love of reading in the children. In the CAB program, each student took home a book of their choice every day and read it to their parents and family. After a student had read 20 books, they were allowed to choose a prize. I added some of my crocheted mittens to the prize choices, and I was surprised at how many children chose a pair of the mittens as a prize.”
Twenty years later, Jane is still knitting extra hats and mittens for the children at Cardinal. They are stored at the school and are available for any student at any given time. Zajaczkowski knits, labels by age group and then delivers boxes of these hats and mittens each school year.
“Jane’s kindness is amazing and very touching,” said Robert Kujala. Kujala steps in as the building’s new principal after recently serving at Southington Local Schools. “She has donated to our children for years. We can’t praise her enough for doing so much work. The quality of her stitching is really amazing, you would think it came off a machine”
Cardinal students resumed back to school on Aug. 21. All of the hats and mittens will come in handy when the Northeast Ohio winters decide to hit.
“We just want to thank her so much for being such a supporter of our children and school district. There will be warm little hands and heads because of her generosity,” said Kujala.
#savethebooks
Jordak Elementary School recently received a generous donation from State Farm Insurance representative Shannan Jursa. She has created a project called #savethebooks and has used her insurance platform to promote the project for students in the area.
“My husband and I have driven all over the state of Ohio and into Pennsylvania to collect roughly 4,000-7,000 all-genre books,” said Jursa. “The ones not appropriate for K-6 students are traded in and used at bookstores for credit, then I shop the kids’ sections.”
The district’s instructional coach, Missy Cardinal, stated that, “Shannan is a great friend of the district’s. She has been donating books to Cardinal for years.”
Jursa’s first stop was at Kathy Thomas Elementary in Windham Schools District. She then traveled to Garrettsville-Garfield, and then Crestwood before stopping at Jordak. Her next donation will be presented to Newton Falls, making it five schools that received donations this year.
“The goal was to put 1,000 books back into the hands of teachers to support literacy in our schools,” said Jursa. “We will continue with this project through the remainder of 2023 to reach as many local schools as possible.”
Shannan’s desire for literacy in the classrooms began in her own home.
“One of my twins struggled with reading and as a result, he had to work harder for the same A’s his brother received with ease. After Title 1, and a structured fourth-grade ELA teacher, he outscored his twin brother on the Ohio STAR test and was placed in Advanced ELA for fifth-grade. Now, both boys are in every advanced class and finished seventh grade with 4.0 GPAs at JAG,” said Jursa.
“I am very appreciative of Shannan Jursa at State Farm. Reading is how we learn and access the world and this will help our children attain their dreams in life,” said Jordak Elementary School Principal Bob Kujala. We will have them available at our School Supply Drop Off on Aug. 17, and our only request is that you take them, and use them. Again, we are very thankful and appreciative of Shannan, for thinking of us and giving us such a nice gift.”
“It’s proof that if you can read, you can learn anything,” said Jursa.
