An estimated 15 million babies are born prematurely each year and 3.9 million dogs enter shelters each year. On Friday, March 11th, Service Learning Leadership held a Blanket-a-thon to make blankets to donate to organizations that assist these vulnerable groups. The two organizations that were ultimately chosen were Miller’s Children’s Hospital and Smooch Pooch Dog Rescue. The Neonatal Intensive Car Unit, or NICU, at Miller’s Children Hospital provides quality care for premature babies, and Smooch Pooch rescues dogs from unsafe conditions in shelters, nurses them back to health, and helps get them adopted. This extensive and valuable care that these two organizations provide is why Service Learning Leadership ultimately chose them to donate the blankets to.
Service Learning’s donation of these blankets meant a lot to the organizations, and the participants of the Blanket-a-thon had a blast making them as well! At the beginning, the participants were given information about the organizations described above to give them a better understanding of the meaning behind the event, as well as instructions to make the blankets. Once given this information, each participant picked out the blanket designs that struck their eye and got to work! The blankets were now-sew tie blankets, and to make them participants simply cut strips along the edge of two pieces of fabric and tied them together. Everyone had a great time- there was music, snacks, and lots of laughs! Once their blanket was finished, each participant got to decide which organization they wanted to donate their blanket to. Those that chose Miller’s Children’s Hospital wrote notes to the parents of the baby receiving the blanket, sending them good wishes.
Overall, the Blanket-a-thon provided both an enjoyable Friday afternoon and blankets for babies and dogs in need. This event allowed those in our community to help make a difference, one blanket at a time.
