Seneca senior has her goals covered
JACKSON TWP — Offering a child comfort after he's skinned his knee or she's bruised her elbow can be difficult, and encouraging a child who is in the hospital can be even more challenging.
A Seneca Valley High School senior set her sights on meeting that challenge.
Annie Walton, 18, said she has always been interested in crafts and the welfare of children, which is why it was easy for her to find her senior project this year: donating handmade blankets to children in hospitals.
“In the future, I want to be a child life specialist,” Annie said. “When I do that, I will work to make kids more comfortable in hospital settings ... so this is contributing to that.”
Walton, the daughter of Deb and Greg Walton of Cranberry Township, said she started working on the project last summer and only finished making all the blankets a few weeks ago.
From raising money for “no-sew” blanket kits to putting all the pieces together, Annie spent a portion of her final year in high school making the 83 blankets.
“I really liked making them,” she added. “I love doing crafty things like that.”
Rather than raising money for research or to benefit the children's expenses, Annie said she wanted to give something physical to help the children.
“For my project, I wanted to do something impactful and have an impact on kids directly instead of just fundraising,” she said.
Annie's project came to its conclusion with her recent board presentation. She said her mission in the community service plan was to spread positivity to children and give them “some hope by receiving something like that.”“My goal was just to help make them more comfortable in the hospital,” Annie said. “It has to be really hard to be away from home, and some of them have to be in the hospital for a really long time. I just want the blankets to be a comfort object for them and for them to know people are thinking about them.”Annie said part of the inspiration for her project came from her family. Her dad's brother, Christopher, she said, passed away at the age of 8 from leukemia. She said she was happy to be able to honor her family through this project, too.Last month, she finished making the blankets and sent them to Project Linus, an organization which collects blankets for different hospitals and foundations.Annie's mother, Deb, said her daughter's chosen project and success in it made perfect sense to her.“She wanted to do something where she was giving back, and it's just something she's always done, is wanting to help others,” Deb said. “It doesn't surprise me, especially with her love for kids and the career she's pursuing.”She added that her daughter was also told to prepare for potentially not getting any donations at all.“We were pleasantly surprised by the donations she received,” Deb said.Deb said she expected for her daughter to get about 50 to 60 blankets, but her daughter's dedication and the community's response helped to boost that number.Annie's future plans include going into child services, a goal which she plans to work toward by attending the University of Kentucky and studying family sciences. She said she also hopes to continue taking advantage of volunteer opportunities.
