Katie Myerholtz, 17, has been a volunteer at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital for more than a year. Over the past six months, she’s been working towards earning her Gold Award for Girl Scouts. The Gold Award is the highest achievement within Girl Scouts, and as a requirement to earn the award, Girl Scouts must complete a solo service project with at least 80 hours of service dedicated to it. This is the story of her philanthropic project in her own words.
When brainstorming project ideas for my Gold Award, I found myself reaching out to an old neighbor and friend, Dr. Heidi Memmel. About a year prior to this, she helped me get a volunteering position with Advocate Lutheran General, and I was so grateful for all the wonderful health care experiences that job has brought with it. I have always been incredibly interested in medicine, and I spoke with Dr. Memmel about project ideas with the goal of finding one that could center around health. Dr. Memmel is a general surgeon with a specialty in breast surgery. From her personal experience in treating breast cancer, she suggested a project idea that we believed could make an important difference in the comfort of breast cancer patients.
Breast cancer is something I’ve never had to face myself, but it is a disease that affects millions of individuals around the world. Working with Dr. Memmel, I developed a plan to create what are known as mastectomy comfort pillows. Each year, over 100,000 women in the U.S. alone undergo a mastectomy to treat or prevent breast cancer. This procedure leaves a person highly sore, and it is often very difficult to perform daily tasks with their pain. The mastectomy comfort pillows I created are designed to clasp around the seatbelt of a car, putting a soft barrier between the rough material of the seatbelt and the easily irritated skin post-operation. These pillows are easy and inexpensive to create but can make a world of difference for people who previously felt uncomfortable and were in pain while riding in the car.
While designing and creating these pillows, I began to find more and more people in my life that needed them. I gave a couple of pillows to some “test patients.” One was the mother of a close friend; the other was the sister of my teacher. They reported back that these pillows made a great difference in their lives. The mother of my friend even shared the news of her pillow at a ladies’ brunch (that’s when I knew I had succeeded in my design!). In the end, I created over 100 pillows to donate to the hospital breast cancer center at Advocate Lutheran General.
Along with creating these pillows, I felt it was important to create something more long lasting. I wrote out a script and recorded a tutorial video with a detailed process of how people can make their own pillows at home. My hope is that people will use my video to continue to make pillows to donate to the hospital. These pillows will go home with patients who have undergone a mastectomy and provide some additional comfort post-operation when in the car. I encourage anyone who is interested to check out my video. These pillows are cheap, easy to make, and can make a world of difference for someone.
There are many ways to give back and support health care programs in your community. Learn more today.