FEATURE STORY 1:

Knives and forks being replaced with pins and fabric. Whiteness being replaced with
color. Frightened children being filled with joy.

When junior Tameka Judson saw that the rooms at the children’s hospital were filled
with white blankets, pillows and walls, she decided to start the Pillowcase Project. The
Pillowcase Project makes colorful pillowcases for children in the hospital. The group is currently
working on making pillowcases for the children’s hospital’s cancer ward which will be delivered
on March 8.

“When I watched that special news cast on the children’s hospital in the winter, I cried
and cried,” Judson said. “I was touched by the strength and character of those children and their
parents. I knew I wanted to do something for them.”

Judson started her journey by contacting the hospital administrator Doug Lent to ask if
she could give the kids in the hospital the pillowcases. He loved the idea and approved the plan.

“This has been an absolutely wonderful project,” Lent said. “Those pillowcases bring so
much wonderful energy to the hospital. I never dreamed this would be the outcome.”

After getting donations from local businesses for supplies, Judson and her friends
started sewing pillowcases. The girls meet every Tuesday and Thursday from 4 to 6 p.m. and 2
to 4 p.m. on Sundays to make pillowcases at Judson’s house where her and her mother
converted the dining room to a sewing room.

“I am not very good on the sewing machine, so I do most of the cutting and pinning,”
junior Sonia Bustamante said. “It sounds kind of boring, but I have loved every minute of it.”

On Feb. 15, the girls delivered the first round of pillowcases to the kids. After the girls
helped each kid pick out the perfect pillowcase, they would sit with them and talk to them. Both
the parents and kids are grateful for those girls.

“That pillowcase made a huge difference for our Sara,” mother of an ill child, Valeria
Gallegos said. “When she was scared, she would hug it tight and tell us ‘Whiskers’ would
protect her.”

Judson wants to make more than 1,000 pillowcases before she goes off to college, but
for now, she is focusing on making the second round of pillowcases.

“This week we are delivering some very special pillowcases to the children in the cancer
ward of the hospital,” Judson said. “Some of these children have spent almost half of their lives
in a hospital in those white, depressing rooms. I hope the colorful pillowcases will bring these
children joy, too. They so need it.”