Club donates blankets, comforts sick children
The USU Pre-Med Club spent Saturday in Salt Lake City at Primary Children’s Hospital where they put on a mini-carnival for children.
David Gage, the club’s president and a junior in biology, said the club made more than 100 blankets to donate to the hospital prior to the event. They bought materials for the blankets with club money, donated to them by Altius Health Plans.
“It’s the right thing to do,” Gage said. “A lot of these kids are stuck in the hospital, going through rough times. No one wants to be stuck in the hospital, and we get to brighten their day.”
He said he and other pre-med students sometimes get caught up in classes like organic chemistry, and it’s good to take time to go see the kids.
“They’re the reason we’re going to school,” Gage said. “You want to go to med school. It’s long and it’s hard, but this is why. Eventually we’ll be able to help them more than just brighten their day.”
Cameron Brock, a club officer and sophomore majoring in biology, said he’s spent a lot of time in Primary Children’s Hospital as a patient and still has two blankets, like the ones the club donated, that he received while there. Fellow club member Alexis Cataxinos, a freshman majoring in biology, said she has also been a patient in Primary Children’s a few times.
“I know that getting out of the room for a few hours makes a difference,” Cataxinos said. “I knew what it was like to be one of those kids.”
Brock said he remembers seeing events like the carnival and how participating helped his younger brother.
“I never really did it because I was kind of an older kid,” Brock said. “I let them go to the younger kids. It was good for my siblings, especially my little brother. It was kind of depressing for him to see his brother in there, but this way he could come and see me but at the same time kind of forget about it for a while. It was more for my family than for me.”
Cataxinos said she has volunteered for a year and a half at Primary Children’s with Kids Crew, a program where people can volunteer for a few hours each week to clean toys, play with kids, take them on walks and read with them. She said the program basically makes it “less daunting” for children to be in the hospital.
Shelby Espinoza, a freshman in biology and member of the club, has volunteered for the last four years with her mother. They run carnival games at the Walk for Autism, the same games they used for the event Saturday. She said she loves to see the children and their families interact while playing the games and giving service. She said volunteering at the hospital and being a part of the club is something that benefits its members.
“I think it honestly just gives us experience with a bunch of different kinds of people,” Espinoza said. “It’s giving us a lot of leadership opportunities.”
Gage said in addition to donating the blankets and working with the kids, the group met with the hospital’s director of anesthesiology. Espinoza said hearing doctors like him speak helped the students to “get a taste of the medical field and what we’re getting ourselves into.”
Gage said the Pre-Med Club is a newer club, and its goal is to help students get into medical school. They have seminars, service events and opportunities to speak with medical professionals. Espinoza and Cataxinos said the club has helped them get a better idea of what they need to work toward throughout their next four years of undergraduate work.
“The Pre-Med Club is such a great resource for those who are thinking about going to medical school,” Brock said. “Most of us have taken the same classes, so we can tutor each other. We get to listen to doctors, and it makes it more of a team effort instead of you against the world.”
Gage said he feels getting involved and listening to advisors helps students be more influential and accomplish “big things.”
“You can achieve great things if you want to go and pursue those,” Gage said.
He said students interested in knowing more about the club can find their page on Facebook.
-m.noble@aggiemail.usu.edu