BUILDING BEDS FOR THOSE IN NEED

Students pitch in for project that aids developing nations

EAST MARLBOROUGH >> When Kathy Hrenko told members of the Longwood Rotary Club she needed assistance to build brackets and crate 45 hospital beds that are scheduled to be shipped to Tunisia, the superintendent of Unionville-Chadds Ford School district said he was pretty sure the students at the school’s technology and engineering department would be willing to help.

When Sanville pitched the idea to Neil Linkmeyer, head of the technology and engineering department at the school, the students were thrilled to be involved in a humanitarian

project.

So Sanville bought all the wood, and all the supplies needed to make the brackets, and the students – about 20 of them – embarked on a new project.

“I didn’t want any taxpayer money involved,” Sanville said.

It took the students three days to build the brackets, and for many of them, the project as a first.

“It was really more involved than I thought,” said Mike Cresta, a student at the high school who helped. “This is the first time I made a bed frame bracket and the first time using a nail gun. It took a rhythm to get the hang of it. It was a learning experience, while doing something great for the community.”

Hrenko, operations director at Project C.U.R.E. (Commission

on Urgent Relief and Equipment) at West Grove, the world’s largest distributor of donated medical supplies and equipment to developing nations, said on average the organization delivers three to four 40-foot cargo containers of medical relief every week. The shipment to Tunisia from the West Grove site was the third since October. Others went to Rwanda and to Syria. Unionville High School honors students helped to load the cargo container bound for Syria.

“They (the students) build the wooden bed braces so the beds could go in (the containers) vertically, and we could fit more beds in the container,” Hrenko said. “This mission is lifesaving. The countries where these supplies go have little to no resources.”

Linkmeyer said it took the students three days to build the frames, and they even helped with the loading.

“I told them it was for a good cause,” Linkmeyer said. “Our students are very helpful when

you tell them it’s for others less fortunate. We do Toys for Tots, so the kids were very happy to step up and help with this project.”

In one 40-foot, semi-truck trailer-sized freight container, Project C.U.R.E. can deliver approximately $450,000 of wholesale medical supplies. Last year, Project C.U.R.E. made 139 shipments carrying $57,300,000 worth of medical supplies and equipment to 53 countries. These efforts redirected an estimated 3.2 million pounds of usable medical surplus from U.S. hospitals and medical manufacturers to health care facilities in need.

Every year, over 20,000 volunteers help to collect, sort, pack and warehouse these lifesaving medical donations providing over 100,000 hours of service.

“The kids did a great job and were professional, “Hrenko said. “It could have taken weeks to find time for someone to make (the braces) but the kids helped out. It makes a difference.”

SUBMITTED PHOTO Max Baines, Cade Chichton, Evan Surian, Sam Staropoli, Tyler Cameron, Robert Schofield and Tate Shughart, all students from a Unionville High School tech ed class, display some of the wood bed frames they made for local nonprofit, Project C.U.R.E.