JAMESTOWN (AP) - Art teacher Rebecca Young Sletten has been providing suitcases filled with comfort items for foster children for about a dozen years. The Jamestown native figures she's distributed around 300 of them.

"The suitcases are really important to these kids," Young Sletten said. "Very often, it's the only thing that's theirs."

Young Sletten, an art teacher at Bismarck High School, was in Jamestown recently to deliver several suitcases packed with a fleece blanket, small pillow, stuffed animal, mittens and hat, books and personal care items to Emeline Burkett, the child welfare supervisor at Stutsman County Social Services.

"It's a way of helping social workers make it a little easier for the child," Young Sletten said.

"It's nice for them, when they visit relatives, to have a suitcase to pack their clothes in," Burkett said.

Young Sletten and her husband were foster parents years ago, and she understood the need children have for something of their own. Too often, the children came to their home in the middle of the night with nothing, she said. If there was time enough to grab a few personal items, they would be in a garbage bag or paper bag.

"It was embarrassing for the child, and that really bothered me," she said.

She started picking up suitcases at rummage sales. Then she had her art students paint them.

"I started with volunteers coming in on Saturday, but there wasn't enough time to get much done," she said. So she made the project part of her art class.

Now, the students paint the suitcases and write encouraging words of love, hope and friendship on them each Friday for eight weeks in the hourlong class. Finally, on a Saturday, Young Sletten and her students varnish them so the painting remains a permanent part of the suitcase. When they're ready to go, she fills them with the various items.

"What's neat is everything is so coordinated," Burkett said. "And it tells the children they're OK and they're cared about."

The Bismarck High School students not only get the satisfaction of doing something for others, they also get credit for 14 hours of community service.