Deacon John Wocken, a second-grade teacher at St. Katharine Drexel School in St. Cloud, started quilting with his students in 1996. It started off as a challenge he wanted to conquer and evolved into 27 years of learning and creating with students. He will retire at the end of the school year.
“I wanted to see if my class could do it,” Wocken said in a press release from Catholic Community Schools. “When I envisioned doing this, it was more about the challenge; wanting to complete a classroom quilt without knowing if it was even possible to do with elementary school students. There was a little hesitation and worry at the time that students may hurt themselves, but one of the learning benefits of this project is having young children understand safety measures and use caution. In all the years I’ve made quilts with classes, there were no student injuries.”
The potential risks were outweighed by the benefits.
“Having the students work together on a quilt teaches them many valuable lessons,” Deacon Wocken said. “It is not only an art activity that requires them to understand contrasting colors and pattern design, but it also involves math and geometry to sew triangles together. They are learning the complex steps involved in creating a quilt, life skills of using a sewing machine and iron safely, and the significance of teamwork. I love seeing the students’ faces when they view the final quilt and see a bit of themselves in the final product after being involved in every step along the way. The project emphasizes that we can make something beautiful when we work together.”
Liam Thomas Velline, a former student of Deacon Wocken’s who graduated from St. Katharine Drexel in 2016, remembers his time with his second-grade teacher fondly saying, “Deacon Wocken was an amazing teacher. He was someone that genuinely made me excited to wake up and go to school. Working with him on different class projects, and specifically the class quilt, was always a very fun and rewarding experience.”
Another former student, Taylor Kroll, who graduated in 2017, added further praise for his former teacher. “Deacon Wocken was very unique,” he said. “He approached every class with a great attitude and always made us smile. His quilting project was very fun as it gave us a new spark of creativity.”
Deacon Wocken’s class recently finished this year’s classroom quilt, his last before he retires at the end of this school year. The quilts he has made over the years with his students will be auctioned to raise funds for student scholarships. If enough funds are raised, Deacon Wocken plans to establish an endowed fund for St. Katharine Drexel student scholarships that will assist students indefinitely.
“After 27 years of quilt making, I wanted to share the incredible creations with the wider community and, in doing so, give back to the school that has provided me with so much joy,” Deacon Wocken said.
The online auction will be open until midnight on March 31. Visit https://one.bidpal.net/skdquiltbenefit/welcome to view the quilts and bid.