Three students at Tippecanoe Valley High School are giving back to children receiving treatment in hospitals by hand making blankets to comfort them during their stay.

Juniors Olivia Trippiedi, McKenzie Murphy, and Susan Nickerson came up with the idea as part of a project for their student leadership group Kosciusko Youth Leadership Academy (KYLA).

The three teenagers have been raising funds through donations, and have even incorporated their mission into Student Resource Time (SRT) at the high school. SRT is time set aside every Thursday for students to get caught up on homework, or to explore different enrichment activities such as music appreciation, cooking, painting, and many other subjects.

In this, the second year of SRT clubs, students are creating clubs based on their passions. Trippiedi, Murphy, and Nickerson asked to create an enrichment club based on their KYLA project. After raising money to purchase the materials, they secured a sponsoring teacher and recruited students to help them during SRT.

“Seeing everyone involved, it just means a lot.  McKenzie, Susan, and I, we all have a passion for kids, so we came up with the idea of doing something for a children’s hospital,” said Trippiedi.

Trippiedi said one person making a blanket takes about an hour and costs about $10 in materials. In groups of three, that time can be cut to less than 40 minutes. There isn’t really a production goal; they just want to make as many blankets as they can with the amount of donations they collect.

“We all have a passion for kids and for nursing,” said Murphy. “A lot of times kids in the hospital get stuffed animals, but blankets are something you can’t really grow out of. It’s just something to comfort them and something for them to hold on to,” she said.

Each blanket has a tag specially designed by the three teens that gets sown onto the blanket. They plan on hand delivering the blankets to Riley Hospital for Children and other pediatric hospitals later this semester.

“I would like the kids to know that there are people out there who care for them. If they’re in a bad place, there is someone who loves them. This is just a simple reminder that they’re covered by love,” said Nickerson.

If there are donations left over, but no more time to make the blankets, the money will be given directly to the hospitals. Anyone interested in making a donation to help purchase materials can contact high school math instructor Alissa Trippiedi at (574) 598-2100 or email [email protected].

Photo from left to right: Juniors Susan Nickerson, McKenzie Murphy, and Olivia Trippiedi hold some of the blankets made during Student Resource Time. The three girls started the initiative “Covered by Love” and have been collecting donations to purchase materials.