Connected Care Club, a new club at Saint Mary’s College, held its first event Sunday in The Science Hall. The event focused on making blankets while providing food and music to students. The blankets will be donated to children in the pediatrics unit at Beacon Memorial Hospital.
The blankets were classic fleece tie blankets, where students can cut around the border of two pieces of fabric and tie them together, without any sewing necessary. The blankets were made from several different colors and designs, ranging from flowers to dinosaurs.
Junior Makenna Schroeder, one of the board members of the club, said she hopes the organization can incorporate a variety of fields at Saint Mary’s to help patients in nearby hospitals. She explained how the club aims to focus on the concept of interdisciplinary healthcare, which aims to provide better quality of care and support to patients.
“Our goal is to bring together different healthcare disciplines, especially the healthcare majors at Saint Mary’s College, to talk about benefiting patient well-being through the interdisciplinary approach to healthcare,” Schroeder said.
The club’s board members have several different majors, including nursing, biology, psychology, neurobiology and speech-language pathology. Attendees at the event had varying majors apart from health sciences, including business and sociology. In total, 15 people attended the event.
Several students said that they came to support the new club on campus. They also said that the event was enjoyable.
“They had free food and just a great environment. The blanket making for the kids has been a lot of fun,” junior Theresa Farnum said.
Junior Jenny Helmer said she connected with the club’s purpose.
“I wanted to show up to give my support for a club that is advocating for such a vital cause. I wanted to support this new club that really prioritizes an interdisciplinary team for patients and advocates for relationships between all care providers and the family and friends of a patient, making it a very holistic approach to care,” junior Jenny Helmer said.
Sophomore Samantha McGrath, a speech-language pathology representative for the club, said that she chose to be part of the club because of its mission. She hopes the club can bring more interconnectedness across the campus and further patient representation.
“I chose to be a part of the Connected Care Club to just spread awareness of interdisciplinary healthcare, to not only unite us while we’re on campus, but to take these connections post-grad as well… remembering to care for the whole patient and not just piece by piece,” McGrath said.
