Nursing Students Organize Fundraiser for Project Linus, Plan to Provide More Blankets to Area Children in Need

DANVILLE , IL (03/22/2012)(readMedia)-- A group of students from Lakeview College of Nursing have organized a fundraiser for the Benefit of Project Linus at Monical's Pizza on Monday, April 2 from open to close at the following locations: Champaign, Urbana, Rantoul, and Saint Joseph, IL.

Project Linus is a non-profit organization reaches out to communities in every state in the U.S. to provide love, comfort, security and a sense of belonging to children who are living with serious illnesses or have survived trauma. This organization achieves this by providing comforting and warm handmade blankets to children from the ages of 0 to 18.

This organization has a Central Illinois chapter that covers the following counties: Champaign, Sangamon, Christian, DeWitt, Macon, and Piatt. Carle Hospital, Provena Covenant, and The Crisis Nursery are among the few places that receive these blankets. Project Linus has nationally made over 4 million blankets which includes at least 500 blankets per month to the Central Illinois communities. Any monetary donations will be used to purchase fabric, which is made into blankets by volunteers or "blanketeers."

Marianne Miller of Rantoul, IL, Kami Roberts of Penfield, IL; and Suzanne Millage of Champaign, IL, decided to pursue this after noticing the blankets during their school clinical experience at Carle Hospital. The students are all interested in working in pediatrics after graduation and thought this would be a great way to help make a child's hospital stay more comfortable, according to Millage.

"We all noticed the blankets in the NICU and asked the nurses about it. After that, we researched the organization and fell in love with the idea and wanted to help," she explained.

Anyone interested in this project can help by picking up a flyer for the pizza event at Lakeview College of Nursing, located at 903 N. Logan Ave. in Danville, IL. The flyer may be presented with your Monical's order on the specified date so that 20% of the total (excluding alcohol) will go directly to the Benefit of Project Linus. Monetary donation forms are also available at Lakeview College of Nursing.

For more information about this event please contact Lakeview College of Nursing at 217-709-0920.

Lakeview College of Nursing has provided excellence in nursing education since 1894. Lakeview currently offers a bachelor of science in nursing degree program in Danville as well as Charleston, IL.

For more information about Project Linus please visit their website at www.ProjectLinus.org.