Girl Scout troop spreads warmth with blankets

A hospital can be both a frightening and a drafty place for patients faced with a combination of medical care and thin hospital gowns.

Girl Scout Troop 44115 from Gig Harbor is working to comfort patients at St. Anthony Hospital with handmade blankets by the troop’s six members.

Troop 44115 isn’t the first troop to supply blankets to the hospital; it just picked up the tradition from a previous troop, troop leader Kimberly Peterson said.

“(The girls) have all just enjoyed making the blankets together,” Peterson said. “It’s really neat to see the impact of what they do.”

The troop members, ages 10 and 11, worked together to create the blankets from one-and-a-half yards of polar fleece in bright prints and colors, and have created more than 150 blankets for the hospital. Tabs are cut around the sides of each blanket, then looped together to create a fuzzy and warm lap-sized blanket.

The six members — Moriko Peterson, Riley Kalahiki, Abby Matthews, Olivia Thoennes, Charlotte Gray and Samara Erlich — have been in a troop together since first or second grade and are bridging together to cadets, the next step in the Girl Scout ladder.

The troop visited St. Anthony on June 13 to meet Rev. Kristen “Jo” Nivling, who has been passing out Girl Scout blankets to patients ever since she started at the hospital three years ago, though the program predates her tenure.

“It’s a huge benefit to us,” Nivling said. “It’s a huge hit with the patients who feel very loved and remembered.”

During their hospital visit, the troop was able to see the thin hospital gowns and tour some of the facilities in order to see the impact that their handmade blankets can have on a patient’s hospital stay.

“The project has been really meaningful through my time here at the hospital,” Nivling said. “(These patients are) going through some of the worst times in their lives and this is really a force for good to help them through that.”

While the majority of the blankets are distributed at Christmas and Easter, Nivling said she does keep a couple of blankets handy to give to patients throughout the year.

“If someone needs a little pick-me-up, if someone is cold, if someone is feeling lonely or isolated then we give them a blanket,” she said.

The tour worked to show the girls the meaning of their donations and the effect that they can have on their community.

“The patients keep themselves warm with the blankets, and you can hug them if you get scared,” said Riley, age 10.

Abby, 11, agreed: “They like something to cuddle when they’re scared.”

The troop has been working on the blanket project to earn their Bronze Award, which requires 20 hours from each scout toward a project that benefits either the local community or Girl Scouting as a whole.

This story was originally published June 23, 2016 at 9:58 AM with the headline "Girl Scout troop spreads warmth with blankets."