Guerin Catholic girls tennis team serving others this holiday season
By RICHIE HALL
When the Guerin Catholic girls tennis team decided to make blankets for cancer patients for its service project last year, it made an incredible impact on both the patients and the team.
So much so, that the Golden Eagles are making it an annual event. Many of the Guerin Catholic tennis players spent their Wednesday afternoon after school making the blankets, which will soon be delivered to patients at the Joe and Shelly Schwarz Cancer Center at IU Health North Hospital in Carmel.
Golden Eagles coach Becky Ragsdale said that 50 members of the team were in the Guerin Catholic media room on Wednesday hand-making the blankets. Those that were unable to attend also participated, making blankets from home and delivering them to the team.
“I think we’ll probably have between 60 and 70 blankets,” said Ragsdale.
“I’m just really happy that we all get to do that and we get to help someone out this holiday season,” said senior captain Katie Geon. There was some holiday music being played while the girls were working on the blankets.
Ragsdale was happy to see her team so engaged in the project.
“It’s been great,” she said. “These girls are just great. They just show God’s love every day.” The coach was proud of her team for “giving back to the community,” she said.
The tennis players made cards that will be attached to the blankets. Lilianna Su holds up one of the cards. (Richie Hall)
Guerin Catholic assistant coach Lynn Trott was there as well. The project is personal for her, as Trott is a cancer survivor.
“It’s always great when we can give back to our community in a meaningful way,” said Trott. “The girls have done a great job coming together to provide these blankets for oncology patients. We’ve doubled our donation in size this year, which is a wonderful thing to be able to do.”
In addition to doing something great for those who are in a time of need, the girls on the team are getting something out of this as well. A large number of players are expected to come out for the GC girls tennis team in the spring, so the blanket-making project is also a good way to help the team come together.
“I’m just super excited,” said Geon. “I missed all the girls and being able to do this with all them and bond as a team has been super cool and I missed them a lot.”
Trott said there are potentially 85 girls coming out for the team.
“Any opportunity that we can have to get our kids together to get to know one another from the freshmen through the seniors is always a wonderful thing to be able to do,” said Trott.
The team’s goal is to get the blankets delivered to patients before Thanksgiving.