Nursing Students Donate Blankets to Eastside Community Ministry
ZANESVILLE, OH – Nursing students at Ohio University Zanesville are doing their part to keep the community warm this winter.
The Student Nursing Association held a campus-wide blanket drive as part of the annual Good Samaritan Blanket Drive.
Students took part in a multi-class competition to collect as many blankets as possible, even receiving a generous donation of over one hundred blankets from locally-owned Economy Linen.
Some of those same students accepted that donation, two large carts full of thermal blankets, and delivered all collected items to Eastside Community Ministry this afternoon.
“We’re able to give back to the community and take care of the people that are in our community. And as a nursing student, we generally go into nursing because we care about our patients, so it’s good to be able to transpire that through the community,” OUZ Nursing Student Kristina Shumaker told us.
It means everything. I think everybody up here that’s a nursing student, we get enjoyment out of making other people happy and so doing this is not only great for the community, as a whole, but it really makes us feel good and solidifies that nursing is what we want to do,” OUZ Nursing Student Tyler Lambes said.
In total, around 250 blankets were donated to Eastside Community Ministry and the timing couldn’t have been better according to Eastside Executive Director Jamie Trout who says the last of their previous blanket supply was distributed just before these arrived.
Trout says they’ll likely have enough now to last them through the winter without having to turn anyone in need away.
“We have a lot of friends that are cold this winter. They’re living outside or they’re on a budget and they’re turning their heat down so that they can stay on that budget and they need an extra blanket at home. So this helps everyone. Not just the homeless. We help everyone at Eastside,” Trout explained.
“I’ve been doing this a long time and to see the faces when people get a blanket, when it’s dead winter, it’s cold and it’s ice outside and you hand someone a blanket, the look on their face is enough to thank us for ever,” Carol Kohler, a Good Samaritan Nursing School Graduate said.
The OUZ Nursing Association, Good Samaritan, and Eastside Community Ministry are extremely grateful for the community’s support and contributions, especially Economy Linen.
And if you would still like to help, blankets are still being taken in the Genesis Hospital lobby, all you have to do is stop by and drop your donation in the box.
