The blank white walls stared at her.
Once again, senior Christina Lee walked down the hospital hallway to visit a family friend. They were working on a craft kit that was donated to them.
Christina created the Crafts for Aiding Recovery and Empowerment (CARE) club earlier this year. The club donates crafted goods to Children’s Medical Center Plano and will hold its first blanket crafting meeting in the arena on Oct. 28.
“What [CARE does] is provide [donations] for our community,” Christina said. “We partnered with [Children’s Medical Center Plano] in order to figure out what our local community needs, and right now they’re in need of blankets and craft kits.”
Christina had an asthma attack when she was 7 years old; she was hospitalized for several days in Children’s Medical Center Dallas. She said the kind-hearted staff at the hospital made a great impression on her, which is why she chose to work with them.
“I went onto the hospital’s website and I figured out what they needed,” Christina said. “I thought it was a cute [full] circle moment to when I was younger. I remembered the nurses working hard for me and I thought, ‘What could I do [to give back to them?]’”
During her junior year, Christina tried to start a healthcare awareness club, but discontinued it due to a lack of participants. She said the most difficult parts about starting a club are finding a club sponsor and getting enough people to join the club.
“[I needed] to find my [club] sponsor early on in the year,” Christina said. “It’s better to do it in the previous year with a teacher that you know [since] a lot of teachers already have a club that they’re running. It was kind of hard to find the sponsor.”
The original plan for CARE club was to help fundraise for the hospital, but Christina scrapped the idea due to feeling it was unrealistic to fundraise for a large hospital.
“[I felt like quitting] in the summer because it was a lot of work to plan everything out,” Christina said. “I had a lot of doubts, but I kept telling myself that it was going to be worth it. Even if no one joined, my friends [would be] willing to support me.”
Christina reached out to people for advice, junior Jimo Lee being one of them. Jimo got involved because she had already developed a relationship with Christina. According to Christina, Jimo is a vital asset to CARE and quickly became vice president.
“I did Hands of Hope [club] last year, and I really liked getting to connect with the younger generations,” Jimo said. “[Getting to know] the kids and being able to have a positive influence on them [is something] I’m hoping to do with this club [too].”
The club held its second meeting on Sept. 30 and wrote “get well” cards to children in the hospital.
“We had to sort [lots of cards] out to see which ones we could actually send,” club secretary Esther Park said. “It was heartwarming seeing high schoolers try their best to encourage children that are ill.”
Christina said that some students join clubs without fully understanding the commitment required, and Jimo added that creating meaningful opportunities for members is key to battle this problem.
“I hope that the club can actually fulfill what these [members] are anticipating,” Jimo said. “[We are hoping to have] a lot of events and projects become successful so that our club members can [do] something good [for the community] because that is what we’re striving for.”
The club has 230 members enrolled. One of its goals moving forward is to keep at least one fourth of the participants engaged in after school volunteer sessions.
“We want to [donate] to the hospital by the end of October,” Christina said. “That [would be] around 30 blankets and 100 craft kits [we need to make]. Since we have over 230 members in the club, it’s definitely possible.”