A class project that started several weeks ago ended up with the idea for a graduation gift for the Union Academy seniors, who were surprised by the announcement of their gift during the Friday, May 26, graduation ceremony.
Using one of her favorite words – serendipity – local quilter Marilee Tice told the graduates that when they receive their diplomas in the next few weeks, they would also receive a hand-stitched quilt.
“Well, serendipity is how I came to be here today,” Tice said during a special presentation during the ceremony. “Serendipity is how there are hand-made quilts for each of you.”
Several of the students and the overflow crowd at Holly Springs Baptist Church reacted with shock, surprise, in at least one case, tears, and at the end of Tice’s speech, a unified “thank you.”
“You are the treasures and graduates of Union Academy in 2023, congrats to all of you,” Tice said in closing.
Serendipity began when Emily Higdon, an English teacher at Union, was seeking someone from the Modern Quilt Guild of Franklin to help her students create Wyan quilt blocks.
“Originating in West Africa, Wyan quilts tell stories; we call them Story Quilts today,” Meg Manning, Tice’s sister, wrote in a statement detailing the journey.
Tice said over the next several weeks, students depicted an event they wanted to remember in their quilts. The experience made an impression and hatched an idea for Tice, a former special education teacher and library media specialist.
“I knew graduation was coming up,” Tice said. “I asked if anyone had ever given the students quilts before, and they have never had that happen.”
Tice recalls that she wasn’t sure about doing quits for all graduates, so she suggested they gift one to an outstanding student at graduation. Tice then presented the idea of making one quilt to the Modern Quilt Guild of Franklin, of which she is a member, to see if anyone had a quilt to give.
“The room got really quiet, then someone said, ‘We can’t just give one quilt, we have to give 26 quilts,’” Tice said.
So, with 24 days to spare before the graduation ceremony, a group of 12 women got to work to create 32 individual quilts, each one different from the rest.
“For me, as a retired teacher who worked with all kinds of students, it’s extremely humbling for them to step up and immediately volunteer to get this done,” Tice said. “I think for the women, quilters are not just artists and crafters, they’re givers. It’s awesome to make a difference in the community and this is something that spoke to them.”
Each of the quilts is 65-70 inches long, or as Tice put it, “enough to wrap around someone sitting on their couch or around their shoulders.”
Many of the quilts were displayed in the Holly Springs Baptist Church lobby, most unaware of their purpose before the ceremony.
Tice said these hand-made gifts could be a seminal point in these graduates’ lives.
“In my experience with students, we never know what small things…a child or teen or adult, give a lasting point in their life,” Tice said. “Making an effort to do this for students who are struggling, they come from broken homes, foster care, struggling to learn in traditional settings. These efforts of someone to touch their lives who don’t even know them are so meaningful.”