On Thursday, November 15 I attended a service event in one of the conference rooms located in the Ohio Union put on by Breathe Hope, a student organization on campus. Breathe Hope works to spread awareness about cystic fibrosis and raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. This particular service event involved making tie blankets out of fleece fabric for patients at Nationwide Children’s Hospital with cystic fibrosis so that they can have a warm and soft blanket with them for the cold holiday season. In just one hour, the other volunteers and myself made a total of eighteen blankets.
Prior to attending this event, I did not know what cystic fibrosis was or who it impacted. The name only sounded familiar to me from television commercials that ask for donations. After making these blankets and hearing what Breathe Hope’s leaders had to say about cystic fibrosis and specifically about the patients at Nationwide Children’s, I was moved to research more about it on my own to get a better understanding of who would be receiving the blankets we made. I was surprised to learn that at least 30,000 people in the United States alone have cystic fibrosis and that most people are diagnosed with this genetic disease before they turn two years old.
From this experience, I also had the opportunity to meet other international affairs scholars who came to volunteer. I sat at a table with two second year international affairs scholars who I had never met before and would not normally have gotten a chance to talk with so casually on a Thursday night. One of these students is also in the School of Natural and Environmental Resources and specifically in the major that I am thinking about switching into. It was very beneficial for me to get to talk to her about what she likes about her major and the classes she is in. She also gave me advice to help me decide between majors. She suggested that I look at the classes required for my major and compare them to the classes required for her major to see which ones interest me more. We also have the same adviser so she suggested I talk with our adviser about it as well. In general, I was great to talk to both of these second years to hear about what they like about IA and what is different this year than how it was last year.
This service event relates to International Affairs because cystic fibrosis does not just affect people in the United States, but people all around the world too. There are more than 70,000 people worldwide right now living with cystic fibrosis. Nationwide Children’s cystic fibrosis patients do not come from solely the Columbus area. Their patients come from as far away as West Virginia and Kentucky to be treated here. These blankets we made will help keep children with many different backgrounds and cultures warm this holiday season.