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NEWS
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAS
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2008
Cushioning the discomfort of a hospital stay
Student donates homemade pillows to comfort children in pediatric wards
BY BRANDY ENTSMINGER
bentsminger@kansan.com
BY BRANDY ENTSINGER
bentmings@kansan.com
Melanie Gorges still keeps a plaid fleece pillow she created in seventh grade, even though the ties are fraying and the fleece has become fuzzy.
The pillow is a reminder of how Gorges, Andale freshman, began making and donating pillows to children in the pediatric wards of hospitals. The project has been so successful it might soon expand to a Kansas City, Kan., middle school.
The project began as a craft for Gorges' birthday party in the seventh grade. Gorges and her mother saw the idea for fleece pillows in a magazine and decided to let each of the girls at the party create one.
After the party, Gorges' mother contacted the Via Christi Regional Medical Center in Wichita and spoke with Angie Long, certified child specialist at the center, about donating pillows to children in the pediatric ward.
Long said the pillows were a comfort item for children who entered the hospital without bringing pillows of their own.
"It's nice to be able to give them something they can use and also take home." Long said.
Melanie Gorges, Andale freshman, donated self-made pillows to the Lawrence Memorial Hospital's pediatric department to use with child patients. Gorges and members of the Douthart Scholarship Hall made the pillows from travel pillows and fleece.
Gorges donated batches of pillows, usually about 10 each time, to the hospital a few times a year until she graduated from high school. Between donations, she saved her money and began work on the next batch.
The pillows cost about $7 to create — $3 for the forms and $2 to $5 for the fabric.
To make the pillows, Gorges tie fleece onto pre-made pillow-stuffing forms and use fabric patterns such as flowers or racecars for the front and solid colors for the back.
Gorges paid for the pillows with her own money after developing a savings plan based on an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show. She
Jerry Wang/KANSAN
saved 50 percent of her income for college, spent 40 percent and donated 10 percent to charity.
When Gorges arrived at the University, she contacted Lawrence Memorial Hospital to see whether its pediatric ward would be interested in her pillows.
Denise Martinek, director of Maternal Child Services at the hospital, worked with Gorges. Martinek said the pillows reminded the children of home and helped ease parents' minds,
"Anything we can do to make their child more comfortable is a blessing to the parents." Martinek said.
Because Gorges didn't have a job in Lawrence to pay for the pillows, she contacted the women who lived with her in Douthart Scholarship Hall for donations and help in making the pillows.
In the end, the hall paid for most of the pillow forms and fabric. Liz Gustin, Overland Park freshman, volunteered to help with the pillows and said the women sang along to a "Now That's What I Call Music" CD from the 1990s and jumped in a pile of the pillows at the end of the night.
Gorges is working on a plan to donate pillows to all of the children at Eisenhower Middle School in Kansas City, Kan. Gorges said she began wanting to work with the school after a speaker visited her introductory teaching class and talked about the problems the middle school's students were facing. She said 75 percent of the students received free or reduced-fee lunches and some were homeless.
Gorges said she hoped to raise money for the project by working with other scholarship halls and organizations on campus. If the project doesn't work out, Gorges said, she would like to work with nursing homes in the future.
Edited by Adam Mowder
STATE
Two insurance companies offer foreign car protection
driver's licenses.
The Wichita Eagle reported Sunday that at least two insurance companies in the state offer policies to motorists with foreign
WICHITA — While some immigrants may not be able to get a driver's license in Kansas, they can get car insurance.
U. S. law requires that all vehicles must carry auto insurance and drivers must show proof of insurance when filing for or renewing a vehicle's registration. But Kansas law doesn't prevent insurance companies from providing coverage to those with only a foreign license.
Supporters say such policies ensure that everyone is protected
in the event of an accident.
Critics, however, have called for limiting the practice, saying they're concerned about road safety and national security.
The two companies that said they insure foreign drivers are Farmer's Insurance Group and State Farm.
Claudia Villatoro, a Wichita office manager for Farmer's Insurance, said the company had been providing coverage for about a year, regardless of the driver's legal status.
NATIONAL Strike ends after Boeing contract renegotiation
SEATTLE — Factories at Boeing Co. are due to start humming again Sunday after Machinists union members voted to end a costly eight-week strike that clipped profits and stalled deliveries by the world's No. 2 commercial airplane maker.
Workers are expected to return Sunday night to Boeing's commercial airplane factories, which have been closed since the Sept. 6 walkout. The strike cost an estimated $100 million a day in deferred revenue and production delays on the company's highly anticipated next-generation passenger jet.
mended its approval.
Machinists union members ended their walkout on Saturday by ratifying a new contract with Boeing. Members of the union, which represents about 27,000 workers at plants in Washington state, Oregon and Kansas, voted about 74 percent in favor of the proposal five days after the two sides tentatively agreed to the deal and union leaders recom-
"This contract gives the workers at Boeing an opportunity to share in the extraordinary success this company has achieved over the past several years," Mark Blondin, the union's aerospace coordinator and chief negotiator, said in a union news release.
"It also recognizes the need to act with foresight to protect the next generation of aerospace jobs. These members helped make Boeing the company it is today," he said.
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