FORT WAYNE, Ind. - Snider High School students have partnered with Parkview Ortho Hospital to help some of the less-fortunate in the Summit City.
Snider’s Biomedicial Science Charity Council is putting together mats for the homeless using plastic bags donated by fellow students and Snider faculty and staff. The bags are cut and knotted together to make plarn (plastic yarn), and ultimately stretched on a wooden loom put together with nails. The mats will be eventually given to homeless in Fort Wayne who may need a soft place to sleep.
“It makes me so happy,” Sylvia Singh, a Snider senior, says. “I love that we can grab a whole bunch of students, and we can share the same passion for giving back to the community.”
Students were assisted in the mats for the homeless project by Laura Ferrell, Vice President of Patient Services for Parkview Ortho Hospital. Ferrell says the partnership between the Ortho Hospital and the Snider Biomedical Science Charity Council developed through conversations between her and Snider biology teacher/Parkview Sports Medicine athletic trainer Christina Ehle-Fails, MS, LAT, ATC.
“It’s always good when you can do something for others. That lesson will pay you back over and over,” Ferrell says.
Mats for the homeless is one of the many community service projects the Biomedical Charity Council, which meets Thursday mornings before school, has done. In recent years, students have knitted stocking hats for cancer survivors. They also host an annual fundraiser and silent auction for Matthew 25.
The council’s work has garnered national attention, too. Council members have been invited to share their community outreach stories at the Project Lead The Way Summit 2017 in October in Orlando. Snider is just one of 18 groups from across the United States selected to present.