Fulfilling our mission
"Changing lives, one house at a time." Habitat for Humanity members live by that slogan, and volunteers truly make a difference. Oceanside High School's Habitat for Humanity club believes this statement whole-heartedly, and our goal is to help out our community as well as surrounding areas. In addition to attending house builds, where we volunteer our time to help make families' dreams become reality, we also participate in many different community service activities. I have been a member of the club since my freshman year and I am now the vice president. I hope to continue being member of Habitat for the rest of my life.
Our most recent project started with an idea I had while volunteering in the rehabilitation department at the Long Beach Medical Center. Most patients in the rehabilitation department are recovering from recent surgeries, such as hip or knee surgeries, and others are recovering from strokes. As a volunteer, I help the nurses by bringing patients food and water, talking to them, and most importantly, attempting to brighten their days. One day, a patient mentioned to me her love of the bay view she had from her room in the hospital. She also mentioned how she wished there was more color in the hospital. That's when the idea for a colorful pillowcase project popped into my head. I figured that the Habitat club could help add some color to each room, and hopefully that would make the patients happier and lead to speedier recoveries. I worked with Bonnie Wells, the hospital's director of volunteers, to get the approvals we needed to move forward with the project. Her assistance, along with the work of club advisor Breanne Suhrland and club president Marlena Springstubb, treasurer Francine Krieger, and secretary Anna Krol, helped to make the project a reality.
During our meetings, club members brainstormed exciting ideas for the pillowcases. Students worked in groups of two or three and used fabric paint to create beach scenes, sunsets, flowers, geometric patterns and abstract images. On the back of each pillowcase, I wrote a different quote as a symbol of diversity and inspiration. Quotes included sayings by Ghandi, former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, filmmaker Woody Allen, and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson. Each of the twenty-five pillowcases were made with love and are one of a kind.
On Feb. 12, the club officers and Ms. Suhrland went to the hospital to deliver the pillowcases. Everyone was very excited to see the finished results of the project. One patient, Ms. Ronne Goldberg, said she was thrilled with our work, and it was wonderful to see how happy the pillowcases made her. She said that she truly believes they will brighten each patients' stay, and we hope the rest of the patients feel the same way.
We now hope to expand the pillowcase project throughout the entire hospital, and we also plan to paint pictures on canvases to help bring some color into the hallways. The pillowcase project is just one of many initiatives we are taking on this year. In the spring, we will begin attending house builds, and we will also be hard at work planning several more community projects before the end of the school year.
