BETHEL — Nick Chapman and son, Keaton came to Amy Lilly’s 7th grade class at Telstar on Thursday. The students had each made a heart for the quilt that they were seeing assembled for the first time.

In March, the Chapman family lost their home and their pets. Not long after their devastating tragedy Donna Gillis, of  Bethel, was contacted by Lilly who asked if they could coordinate on a caring gesture that would involve her class.

“We wanted to present this to you, because we care and we love you,” said Lilly to Chapman, whose mother was there, too.

“You don’t realize until you lose everything … my kids lost everything. To see the love like this and the love from the community is a very humbling thing. Thank you all very much,” said Chapman.

Gillis has made many quilts for families experiencing tragedy. She said she knew right away the quilt would be constructed of hearts. She enlisted her friend and fellow quilter, Melinda Remington.

They came to Lilly’s class armed with lace, buttons, jean fabric, needles, thread and fabric glue.  Substitute teacher, Linda Morgan helped, too.

Each student designed their own heart and signed a piece of muslin for the back of the quilt. Gillis “fancy stitched” all the heart’s edges then sewed it together. “The quilt is affectionately called ‘hearts mending hearts,'” said Gillis.

Lyndsey Smith’s 4H class made five pillow cases for the Chapmans, too.

“They understood how great the loss had been for the family,” said Remington of the students and their efforts.

Lilly, a language arts teacher,  told her class, “We wanted to tie all the pieces together. Symbolism is really important. Our community is really important. How literature and reading and language matter in the real world… What does the heart represent? … sending love and care and compassion.”