Every year, the residential assistance of the university run programs to help bring together the people of their residential halls. These programs can be anything from ice cream socials to community projects.

“The programs we run build community among the students while assisting them in personal and professional growth,” said Kerri Goodall, a junior resident assistant in Larson.

This year, Goodall was inspired to further the growth of her residents and provided them with a very special program. Twenty-three residents came together and made a mini quilt, which they will be donating to the Connecticut Hospice in Branford.

“I choose to do the service program for this location because I did fieldwork experience for occupational therapy there,” said Goodall. “Their staff is amazing, the facility is beautiful, it is right on the water and the patients are so enriching to meet.”

Goodall said the project was not only beneficial for their education, but made the students give back to an extraordinary part of the community.

“I advertised for the program and then voluntarily came to participate,” said Goodall. “Many students did not even know what a hospice was, so it had an educational component to it in addition to a service component.”

Because of the differing schedules of all the students in question, it is often hard to get all residents together for these programs. Goodall overcame this obstacle when thinking of the mini-quilt program.

“It is very difficult when designing a project for students to do because they have limited time and you need to capture that hour or two that they are willing to contribute,” said Goodall. “This project was designed like a quilt, but was made of felt so residents could easily cut and paste the project together.”

The quilt took three hours to finish and Kristen Pirolli, Sarah Adams and Goodall put on the finishing touches. The quilt is a little bit bigger then a square yard and will be hung by a wooden pole at the Connecticut Hospice sometime this week, Goodall said.

“It is a bright and cheery design,” said Goodall. “The design is of two birds dancing cheek to cheek on the upper left, another bird playing the saxophone on the lower left hand side, with a heart pattern in opposite corners.”

Goodall said the project was a huge hit with the people in her residence hall.

“Many college residents have good hearts but are just too busy, so they do not give back to the community,” said Goodall. “This project just put all my resources and prep work at their fingertips so they too could be part of serving for the surrounding community.”

Goodall said residents thought the quilt was a wonderful idea.

“They became really engaged in the project and walked away with not only a sense of accomplishment but a sense of service to others,” she said.