Student leaders deliver blankets to Kootenai Health for Global Youth Service Day

Growing the STEM’s student leadership team recently worked with students at Borah Elementary School to celebrate Global Youth Service Day and discuss the importance of community service.

Global Youth Service Day, celebrated April 26-28, is the longest-running annual youth participation event in the world. It encourages young people ages 5 to 25 to work together for the common good while also recognizing the impacts they make on their communities throughout the year.

Twenty-five Borah students spent several hours after school making brightly colored fleece tie blankets for children hospitalized at Kootenai Health. High school students from Growing the STEM’s leadership team assisted with the blanket making and engaged the younger students in conversations about the importance of giving back to the community.

“Helping out at Borah made me realize the goodness in the kids and the bright future the community has with them," said Maddox Le, a Coeur d’Alene High School junior and a student board member for Growing the STEM.

The Blankets Building Benevolence project was funded by a grant from Hershey Heartwarming Young Heroes, a program affiliated with the Youth Service America nonprofit. Borah teachers Rita Roth and Teresa Armstrong supervised and helped coordinate the effort.

“This project was such a blast with all the kids," Coeur d'Alene High School Growing the STEM representative Ava Dircksen said. "It showed me how many students are willing to give back to our community.”

Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy sophomore and Growing the STEM student board member Caitlin Zent said volunteering is important "because it allows individuals to make a positive impact on their community and create meaningful connections with others.”

Kali Singleton, development and events supervisor for the Kootenai Health Foundation, worked with Coeur d’Alene High School junior and Growing the STEM co-founder Adeline Smith to coordinate the blanket donation.

“The staff and patients were so excited when they received the blankets and loved all the colors," Singleton said.

“We are so thankful for the donations," Kootenai Health pediatric nurse manager Natalie Anaya added. "The staff have all really enjoyed handing them out."

The Hershey’s Heartwarming Project awarded grants to 134 youth changemakers in 39 states, territories and Canadian provinces this spring. The program challenges youth to organize, lead and engage their peers in awareness, direct service, advocacy and philanthropic projects, with a focus on engaging youth who don’t typically volunteer. 

Members of Growing the STEM organize and support after-school math and science programs in the Coeur d'Alene School District with an emphasis on leadership and encouraging underrepresented groups to pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics education and activities. This year, the organization served more than 900 elementary and middle school students through programs such as Mathletes, Math is Cool, STEAM Club, STEM Club, Chess Club, Engineering Club and more.

Info: growingthestem.org

    Adeline Smith, co-founder of the Growing the STEM nonprofit, is seen with colored bags filled with fleece tie blankets students donated to kids at Kootenai Health for Global Youth Service Day.
  

    A personalized note is seen on one of many bags Growing the STEM participants used to deliver blankets and messages of kindness to kids hospitalized at Kootenai Health for their Blankets Building Benevolence project.