By Mike DeNardo

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Some students at Germantown High School are just back from a trip to New Orleans, where they delivered a gift of handmade stained glass.

The kids from Germantown High created a dozen stained glass windows at the Stained Glass Project, an after-school program at the First United Methodist Church of Germantown.

Project co-founder Paula Mandel (second from right, partially hidden, in photo) says it’s about the healing power of art.

(Students presented Mayor Nutter with a commemorative plaque made with stained glass. Credit: Mike DeNardo)

“We want our kids to understand what it’s like to give to other people,” she says.  “And who better to reach out to,  than other children around the world?”

They took their gift of stained glass to kids at the Morris Jeff Community School in New Orleans, a school destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

Germantown High graduate Janai Dallas says the Morris Jeff children were all smiles.

“They loved it a lot,” she told KYW Newsradio.  “When we first came in, we had little kids — I  guess they were in pre-K and first — they came up running to us, hugging us and stuff.  And we were hugging them back.  It was pretty cool.”

Morris Jeff is in a temporary facility now, but Mandel says the Germantown stained glass will be installed at the front door of the school’s permanent location.

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