ALPHARETTA-While temperatures were dipping in January, the fifth-grade class from Holy Redeemer School was busy scouring their neighborhoods for donations of new and gently used blankets for the homeless.

As part of a service project within the school's religion program, the fifth-graders collected and distributed 500 blankets to various charities and homeless shelters just prior to one of the worst ice storms in Atlanta's history.

Carole Anderson, executive director of Sojourners, a homeless shelter for families in Cumming, was invited as a guest speaker to help the children develop an understanding and sensitivity to the need for blankets in the shelters.

"Each child who enters our shelter is given a blanket and a new teddy bear to have in the shelter and then take with them when they leave," Anderson said. "A blanket is very symbolic in the life of a homeless child."

With the help of Holy Redeemer religion teacher Karen Blackburn, each child developed his or her own marketing plan and flyer for collecting blankets in their neighborhood.

"It was a project that helped to develop the children intellectually, socially as well as spiritually," Blackburn said. "The flyer was given as a homework assignment that involved both writing and computer skills."

Holy Redeemer student Lauren Dempsey's flyer identified her as a fifth-grader at Holy Redeemer Catholic School collecting blankets for the homeless shelter Sojourners. She indicated that they could put the donated blankets in a plastic container on her porch, or call her for pick-up. She stressed working together as a community to make a difference. On her flyer was a special plea for children's blankets that tugged at the heartstrings of her neighborhood resulting in a very successful campaign.

"It was a great experience," Dempsey said. "We did the whole project by ourselves - our teachers and parents didn't help. I felt good in my heart each time one of my neighbors brought over a blanket. Most of them were brand new."

After the blankets were collected, the children counted and sorted them, getting them ready for distribution.

To add to the excitement of the project, predicted bad weather for the scheduled weekend of delivery prompted the class to expedite the distribution of the blankets to the shelters. At a moment's notice, several students and their mothers gathered at Holy Redeemer to plan a quick distribution of the blankets. In a day and a half, only hours before the ice storm pounded Atlanta, all 500 blankets were distributed to various shelters, including Sojourners, Family Haven, Task Force for the Homeless, Interfaith Outreach and North Fulton Charities.

The children fortunate enough to accompany their mothers to the homeless shelters were rewarded with rich experiences, such as Rachel Berryman, who accompanied her mom to Sojourners.

"I never expected the shelter to be so small for so many people," she said. "I'm so grateful for all that I have now."

Burke Hasler-Lerch accompanied his parents to a downtown overflow men's shelter managed by Task Force for the Homeless. He said he was startled to learn that the men actually slept on the cold concrete floor with only three or four blankets to keep them warm.

"For some people a blanket is all they have for a home," he said.

Cathy Bendin, whose son, Joe, is a fifth-grade student at Holy Redeemer, was also moved by the experience.

"The impact of the whole experience was great because the children got to see firsthand the need for these blankets," she said. "Where we live we don't often see how many people there really are who have no place to go to get off the street. These children got to see how their efforts do make a difference."