Nursing students comfort young patients
Kylie Saari — Staff WriterArticle Photos
FAIRMONT - For a child, a stay in the hospital can be a scary thing. Likely not feeling well and surrounded by unfamiliar faces, beeping machines and worried family, every bit of comfort is welcome.
It was this that inspired Presentation College instructor Amber Yost to involve her students in crocheting.
Yost wanted to help her freshmen reach their 20-hour community service requirement for graduation, so she offered to teach them to make blankets. The goal was to donate them to the pediatric unit at Fairmont Medical Center.
Last week, Yost presented 13 handmade blankets to the hospital, made by her and four students over the past two years.
The blankets will be given to children staying overnight at the hospital.
Jason Howland, communications director at Fairmont Medical Center, said the blankets are given to the kids when they check in.
"It makes them feel a little bit more comfortable in their rooms," he said.
Yost is not new to crocheting, but it was new to her students. She volunteered her time to teach a number of students the craft, although only four completed blankets. The blankets are time-consuming to make, she said, estimating each one took about 20 hours to complete.
"We met one day a week outside of class," Yost said, "and they did a lot at home."
She was impressed with the students work, noting one student completed six blankets.
"They were very well done," she said.
All the yarn was donated by area residents.
"We asked in the Sentinel for people to donate any yarn that they weren't going to use," Yost said. "We had a lot of response. The ladies in town donated lots and lots of yarn. It was spectacular."
So much was donated in fact that Yost plans to continue using it to bring comfort to hospital patients.
Next semester will bring a new project for the students, although this time around Yost has decided to keep it on a smaller scale.
"We are going start a new project," she said. "We will maybe make hats or something smaller, maybe stuffed animals."
