Seneca Valley juniors Alyssa Dunning, left, and Ashley Pelloni cut patterns for marsupial pouches and bat wraps to send to aid animals effected by Australia's wildfires.

JACKSON TWP — They’re called bat wraps, but they look like little sleeping bags.

A piece of cloth about 12 inches long ends in a small cushion, which a baby bat will hold onto. Wrapping the cloth around the bat attached to the cushion simulates a mama bat’s embrace.

And for bats left orphaned and scorched by recent Australian wildfires, a mama’s embrace can be the difference between life and death.

“It’s for rehabilitation,” said Tiffany Smietana, a family and consumer science teacher at Seneca Valley. “Nothing we have will go to waste.”

What members of Seneca Valley’s chapter of Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) and Strengthening, Positivity and Reinforcing Kindness (SPARK) have is recovery supplies.

Since January, students volunteered their time after school to hand sew, knit and crochet pouches and wraps for baby marsupials, bats and parrots affected by recent Australian wildfires.

This is an excerpt from a larger article that will appear in Sunday’s Butler Eagle. Subscribe online or in print to read the full article.