GATE MILLS, OH — A classroom tradition is now expanding to help bring comfort to organ donors and their families. St. Francis of Assisi Parish is now partnering with LifeBanc, an organ procurement organization in Northeast Ohio, and its “Comfort Blanket Project.”
Robin Zullo’s fourth-grade class is helping the group create fleece blankets to provide comfort to donors and the loved ones of donors who may not survive. As Zullo and her colleague Shannon Hansel explained, her classes have been making blankets for years. Though, the blankets were originally donated to patients at Hillcrest Pediatrics.
“We're just trying to inspire all the students that they have so much and there are others that have so little or need help. So that's what we're trying to inspire them to go outside the community to help others,” Hansel said.
Heather Mekesa with LifeBanc says donors are given blankets at the hospital that are not always comfortable or colorful. Yet, the comfort blanket project is helping change that. Each one made by students leaves donor families with a soft touch and a piece of their loved ones.
“Providing them with just a little extra comfort at this at this very special time that is really hard for so many families, what they're going through. And it does provide just a little extra comfort for them,” Mekesa said.
For more information on how to become a blanket project volunteer, click here.
