Oklahoma Road Middle School Students Learn the Ropes of The Operating Room, Donate Clothes For Children

Local middle school students donned scrubs and stepped into an operating room at Carroll Hospital Center Thursday, getting a first hand look behind the scenes.

These students are part of the SHOUT club at Oklahoma Road Middle School and were on a special trip to give back to the community and learn something new as they participated in Bundles for Babies by donating items to the hospital for children, infants and their families.

“We collected newborn clothing and toys to give to the hospital delivery area for when they send the newborns home and parents don’t have things for their babies,” said Dona DeSimone Crisis Intervention Assistant at Oklahoma Road Middle School.

Each grade had a different category, “sixth grade was infant toys, seventh grade was t-shirts and onesies, and eighth grade was sleepers,” said DeSimone. “We received a lot of donations and it was really great. It was a lot of fun doing the drive.”

Jordan Santis, a seventh grader at Oklahoma Road learned through the process that there’s a lot to be grateful for. “I like giving gifts to the kids and helping out,” said Santis. “It’s not always about you getting something it’s about giving them something.”

This is SHOUT’s first year donating to the Carroll Hospital Center and in return the students were able to see a side of the hospital many haven’t discovered before.

The sixth, seventh, and eighth graders were taken on a tour of the hospital, visiting various departments including pediatrics, an operating room, the emergency room, and the obstetrics unit.

“I really liked touring the hospital and seeing how the kids were going to be able to use the toys and clothing we donated,” said eight grader Nicole Eoheen.

Linda Grogan, Executive Director of Women’s and Children’s Services, ushered the students through the pediatric unit where they were able to see an empty inpatient pediatric room. “There are people that go home from here that don’t have anything that they need to care for their baby, so this is a tremendous help,” Grogan said to the group as she was leading the tour.

Later the students were led through the obstetrics unit where they able to see an empty inpatient room and observe the equipment used to keep a newborn baby warm.

And for the “dress up” portion of the tour, students were given gowns, booties, and hats to wear from nurse Kathleen Painter, Director of Surgical Services before they entered the operating room. In the OR, the nurse showed the students the equipment and discussed their functions.

In the emergency room nurse Colleen Hordesky led the tour. She showed students an empty patient room.

Students had fun observing their oxygen saturation on the monitor when nurse Colleen Hordesky placed the pulse oximeter on their fingers.

And after all of the fun had at the hospital, the students still remembered what they came for.

“The SHOUT program helps a lot of people. You get service hours, which you need to graduate high school, and you just have fun. I think the babies and kids that get the donations will be very happy,” said Travis Houck, a sixth grader at Oklahoma Road.

Coordinator DeSimone explained that this is just one of the many service projects that students in the program take part in. “We do a lot of community work, a lot of charity for the community like this one. We also do blood drives and we collect school supplies. We have a great community and everyone puts in a lot of effort to make everything work.”

When preparing for this drive DeSimone said that every morning “a group of girls would go around to each home room and collect the items and put them in boxes.” They collected enough items for the hospital to fill nine boxes.

“It’s been a really good group. They are really fun to work with,” said DeSimone. “They take the ball and roll with it.”