Notre Dame group plans to give gift of warmth

It's rare that a project receives anything close to 100 percent participation, but Athletes Give Back at Notre Dame Regional High School has it. Started this year, the student-led group recently completed its first contribution and is planning more projects.

Kirk Boeller, who coaches baseball and girls basketball at Notre Dame, was on Southeast Missouri State University's baseball team when it had a similar program. Members have to be seniors.

"Coach Boeller played baseball at Southeast Missouri State and it's something they did there, so he bought it to the school here," said Blake Hagedorn, who leads Athletes Give Back with fellow senior Taylor Feeney.

Boeller said he brought the idea up to a few athletes just to see if they were interested. He picked Hagedorn and Feeney to select senior captains from each sports team to provide information on Athletes Give Back to their squads. Each team had a meeting, and once everyone knew what the project was about, the concept caught on.

"I had almost 100 percent participation in this group, which is really cool," Boeller said.

After hearing St. Louis Children's Hospital accepted fleece blanket donations, Boeller suggested the idea to Hagedorn and Feeney, and they ran with it.

"We had freshmen through seniors participating," Feeney said of the project.

The group, which has 53 members, created 258 blankets in a variety of colors and patterns, which they plan to deliver to Children's Hospital on Dec. 20. Boeller said he checked with the hospital and found out a contribution of 50 is considered a large donation.

Initially, three classrooms were "completely covered in fleece blankets," Feeney said. The blankets, encased in Notre Dame blue plastic bags, were then moved to the teachers' meeting room where they now sit.

Children receiving the blankets -- which came in a variety of sizes and styles -- are able to keep them.

Many of the school's sports teams had "blanket-making parties." Hagedorn, who's a member of the Notre Dame baseball team, said he gathered teammates and "we just went out and bought the stuff we needed. Coach Boeller had instructions on how to do it, so we just went to my house and did it."

Hagedorn, and Feeney especially, wanted to get involved in Athletes Give Back. Both said the community does a lot for athletes, so they wanted to give back. Plus, Feeney, who plays basketball and volleyball, said a couple of classmates have been in the hospital and would have loved to receive a blanket.

"They know what it's like to be in the hospital and to be kind of bored and lonely, and to get something as small as a blanket means a lot to them," Feeney said.

Boeller said the group doesn't have any future projects planned, but is considering doing something around Easter, such as volunteering to help during local Easter egg hunts and food drives, or doing smaller community projects. "But we don't have any definite plans yet," he said.

"As far as projects like the blanket thing," Boeller said, "we haven't really discussed something else along those lines yet, but really what I want them to do is ... volunteer their time and abilities to the people who would appreciate it the most.

"I know children look up to athletes a lot. That's kind of why I think athletes have a special avenue to make a difference. ... They look up to athletes, not just at our school. We're not the professional LeBron James going out and helping somebody, but still we're local high school athletes, and I think the area's youth really look up to these guys just as much as they would maybe a professional basketball player. You guys know you did when you were little," Boeller said, talking to Hagedorn and Feeney.

Feeney said the group is "up for anything" for their next venture.

"That's ultimately why we started this group, because me, personally, [I've done] sports my whole life," Boeller said. "I was at SEMO when we started helping out in our community. I was more excited to see the look on people's faces when we would help out than I was during a baseball game or a basketball game. ... I wanted these guys, especially the senior class going into college, to have that same feeling to realize sports are great but there's so much sports are teaching us about helping out others, doing things the right way and putting your teammates in front of you and putting others in front of you."

rcampbell@semissourian.com

388-3639

Pertinent address:

265 Notre Dame Drive, Cape Girardeau, Mo.