After being placed in a drone class as part of her high school curriculum, Carmichaels Area High School student Camryn Lemley knew she wanted to come up with a new plan. She didn’t have much interest in learning about drones and wanted to use her time to do something more meaningful to her. And then had an idea.
Camryn approached her teacher, Nicole Morecraft, about completing a service project instead of working on the drone program. Morecraft approved of the independent study service project. “She thought it was a big undertaking. She wasn’t sure that it would all come together in time,” Camryn says. “But once it was done, she was very proud. “
After getting her teacher’s approval, Camryn had to choose her service project, something with special meaning. After some thought, she decided on making blankets for people that needed them. Blankets had a particular significance in her family, as many family members still had their childhood blankets.
Initially, she wanted to create the blankets for WVU’s Children’s Hospital. She contacted the hospital, but they informed her that they were no longer taking donations of handmade items due to COVID-19. While considering what places would appreciate the blanket donation, she thought about her pap. They had always had a close relationship, but he had recently passed away. Her thoughts helped her come to a decision. Once completed, she would donate the blankets to a local nursing home and chose Rolling Meadows in Waynesburg.
Over the next three months, Camryn would dedicate most of her free time to the service project. She planned out everything that she would need to do to see it through to completion. The first step was raising the much-needed money for supplies. She reached out to area businesses, family, and friends, and they came through for her project, donating more than enough funds for the supplies she needed.
With the funds coming in, Camryn and her family began making trips to area craft stores to take advantage of their fabric sales. Eventually, they purchased enough fabric to create the blankets, each blanket one and a half yards long and double sided. With some help from her grandmother Bette Jo, Camryn began making the blankets by tying them together – no easy task when you have over a hundred blankets to make.
“I spent my weekends, afternoons after school, and even class time to make the blankets. I would take them with me to [drone] class and free periods so that I could get them tied,” Camryn says.
They were able to get the hundred blankets, plus a few extra, tied in time to deliver to Rolling Meadows before Christmas. Some leftover money from the initial batch of donations was used to create gift baskets for residents, also. “It was overwhelming and rewarding to see the reactions from [the residents]. They were all so happy, so excited to get them. Some of them even cried,” Camryn shares. “It was very nice seeing how much they meant to them.”
“People should help out more so things like this for community. It often means more than you think,” Camryn says. “It really made an impact.”
The project isn’t quite finished yet. After everything else was completed, Camryn received an additional donation too late to help with the blankets. “We wanted to make sure that the money doesn’t go to waste, so it will be used to donate coloring books to WVU Medicine Children’s Hospital,” Camryn adds.