Real stories from real people
"It was the early 1970's. Little league was big, summer was spent on the lake fishing with my dad and I was a Boy Scout. I remember making this plate as part of a craft project with the Boy Scouts. I was so proud to bring it home and show it off.
Fast Forward
I am now 45 years old with a grown daughter of my own. This plate has been used and washed thousands of times by myself, younger sisters and fought over by my neice and nephews as to who gets to use Uncle Mark's plate at dinner.
I am Mark Lindsay and this is my plate. "
I began teaching in the fall of 1971. In the fall of 1972 I got married and placed my first order to the Makit Plate Company. I was teaching special needs children and there was really no way the plates could have turned out "bad". I used the Makit Plates for a number of years as my students' family Christmas presents. I would get small pizza boxes from our local pizza place and we would wrap up the plates with Christmas paper that the students had stenciled and tie it up with very gaudy ribbons. The gifts were a great hit!
My nephew, Randy, was born in January of 1980. When he was 5 years old and in Kindergarten I had him make a number of plates for our family as Christmas presents. I brought him to my house for the weekend and under great secrecy he proceeded to color a plate for his 2 grandmothers, 2 grandfathers, 3 uncles, 2 aunts, as well as his mother and father. Toward the end of all of this he was getting pretty tired, but I told him he still had to finish one for himself and his baby brother, Tony. His baby brother would be turning 1 year old after Christmas and Randy replied that he would do one for himself, but Tony wasn't eating off of a plate and he didn't think he would need one. Needless to say, I convinced him that Tony would need a plate at some time and he completed his Christmas gifts.
|
 |
|
The plate in the picture was the drawing he did of me in my favorite color. It was made in November of 1985, along with 13 others. My husband's plate fell victim to the microwave, but Randy's mother has preserved the ones he did of them. They have been used throughout the years at various family functions.
Unfortunately, my husband and I had no children, but we were "aunt and uncle" to our friends'
children. That same year we had four other children between the ages of 5 and 8 make plates for their families. In addition to the children, I made sets of 8 plates for both my parents and my husband's parents in subsequent years. To my knowledge most of them still survive and are still in use for special occasions.
I can't tell you what a great product the Makit gifts are. I have watched the various items develop with amazement. I am retired from the public schools, but serve as principal/teacher of St. Edward School, a very small Catholic school in Cynthiana, Kentucky with
53 students. This is my 37th year of teaching and I can find no other economical "quality gift" idea that students can make that will be used more than the items found in the Makit brochure. The price ranges are reasonable.
Last year our students made plates in grades K-3 and trays in grades 4-6.
We had all of the students sign some trays. A couple of days before Christmas break we had an afternoon of school wide cookie baking. Each student put a dozen cookies on their plate, or tray, wrapped them up in plastic wrap with a ribbon and took them home for their family's Christmas present. We sent cookies to former priests and volunteers on the trays that all of the students had signed. The possibilities are endless as to what creative ideas one can come up with.
|
