For community service month, students in the School-Community Based and Learning For Independence special education programs made port and comfort pillows for a cancer-survivor group at Suburban Hospital. The pillows help ease patients’ pain and irritation from various treatment methods. Port pillows attach to seat belts, cushioning the chest of a patient with an inserted port for treatments.

SCB teacher Veronica Garner contacted oncology nurse Barbara Doherty at Suburban’s radiation center, who then met with the students and was overwhelmed by the donation.

“They’re beautiful pillows, so soft,” Doherty said. “It was a great treat for us and our patients. Anything we can do for our patients during this tough time is wonderful.”

Students shopped for necessary materials and measured and cut the length of fabric they needed, applied sewing tape, ironed the tape into place and stuffed the pillows. The process didn’t require sewing, making it more accessible.

“It was inclusive to all the students, even kids who have more fine-motor deficits,” LFI teacher Ryan Mullin said. “It’s always cool to see a final product emerge from your work, and for kids with intellectual disabilities, it’s even more important for them to see a final product.”

The classes enjoyed making the pillows and seeing the patients smile, and they look forward to continuing the project next year, LFI students Hannah Lisin and Adam Kupfer said.

“It was really eye-opening,” Mullin said. “Humans naturally feed off of emotion. Seeing the people’s faces when we donated those pillows, the students may not have understood the action they did, but it gives them that feeling of true joy for helping someone.”