Sixth-graders make quilts for littlest babies

In March of last year, Erin Szachnowicz was visiting her brand-new nephew in the neonatal intensive care unit of Anne Arundel Medical Center when she noticed the quilts.

Handmade blankets in all colors covered the warming isolettes holding the tiny newborns, shielding them from the bright lights.

Mrs. Szachnowicz's daughter, now 7, also needed the extra TLC of an NICU when she was born, as did the infant nephew of fellow Central Middle School teacher Shannon Krieger.

And a service-learning project was born.

Fifty-three sixth-graders at the school spent four months making those small quilts for recipients they'll...