By Cameron Kerkau, Staff Reporter.
Maya Angelou once said, “When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.”
This December, Delta students will have a chance to give. The Greater Delta College Community and the Great Lakes Bay Region CAN Council are presenting Delta College’s Third Annual Blanket Project.
The CAN Council was founded to provide a safe environment for the authorities to get the information they need to help children of abuse and neglect.
English professor Sharon Bernthal has taken her classes to the CAN Council for community service for years. There, Bernthal and her students would donate the essentials like toilet paper. They were always trying to find new ways to help out.
“I wanted to find more ways to give a tangible thank you to the CAN Council when I realized that I had some fleece left over that I would use to make blankets. I mentioned this to Catherine Martinez (the Community Outreach Specialist) and she said to me, ‘Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every child who has a CASA could get a blanket for the Christmas party,’ says Bernthal.
A CASA is a Court Appointed Special Advocate trained to support the best interests of children who have been neglected and abused, in courtrooms and elsewhere.
During the first blanket project, 80 blankets were made for children with assigned advocates. The following year over 90 blankets were provided.
“Giving CASA’s the tools to do their job makes you feel like you’re on their team. They’re the real heroes here,” Bernthal says.
The Third Annual Blanket Project will take place in N012 on Dec. 1 and 3 from 2-4 p.m. Volunteers are invited to come together to create, purchase or donate a blanket to a child in need.
“Students can participate in the event and/or they can shop the sales for fleece and even make the blankets ahead of time. Have fun with it by making it a date night or a family project,” Bernthal suggests.
Children with a CASA could be very young or they could be teenagers, so a variety of styles are encouraged.
Bernthal can speak from first hand experience how fulfilling it is to give.
“These children are whisked away from their homes with very little,” she says. “It has a huge impact on them to have their own possession that they chose. They have such a hard history that anytime you can let them just be children is amazing.”
