Pearle Lawson's second graders at Penn Elementary show off their Bicentennial Quilt. Quilting, Lawson taught the class, was a colonial craft befitting the Bicentennial. Classmates displaying the completed blanket are Laura Coe and Mark Krenitsky, left, and Kenneth Snyder with Earl Calderwood Jr., right. Paul Krenitsky, center, was one of three parents who designed the drawings, traced and colored by the youngsters.

A special quilt made by Penn Elementary students in 1975 soon will return to the South Butler County School District.

Students and parents sewed the quilt to commemorate a historic moment — the 1976 bicentennial celebration of the United States. Today, the blanket is weaved with bits of Butler County history into its fabric, too.

In April of 1975, Pearle Lawson held a quilting day with her second-grade class. The class eventually gave the quilt as a gift to Sylvia Brown, who at the time was a 92-year-old resident of Sunnyview Home.

Years later, after Brown’s passing, the quilt returned to the Lawson family.

Today, the quilt is in the hands of their daughter, Jennifer Lawson, who also taught in the area. She now lives in the Syracuse, N.Y. area.

Jennifer Lawson plans to return to Butler County for a visit next month. She will be bringing the quilt with her.

This is a preview of an article that will appear in Friday’s Butler Eagle. Subscribe online or in print to read the full article.

Pearle Lawson