Jefferson Nursing Student Leaders Lend a Helping Hand to the Mazzoni Center

PHILADELPHIA, PA – April 21, 2010 – Jefferson School of Nursing students, through the Nursing Student Government and the Delta Rho chapter of nursing honor society Sigma Theta Tau International, collected more than 1,000 personal care items for at-risk youths who visit the Mazzoni Center, a LGBT health center in Center City Philadelphia.

Kathy Shaffer, RN, MSN, instructor and philanthropy chair for Delta Rho, started the Warm Hearts, Warm Hands drive, which took place February 1-14, in response to the current economic crisis and its impact on children and teens in need.

"I stumbled upon a local pajama drive for children and was inspired to do something similar for the Mazzoni Center," said Shaffer. "Due to the center's limited size, they weren't able to take pajamas, yet expressed a need for personal care items like shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant and underwear." Shaffer and Jefferson's nursing student leaders collected over 1,000 items for the Mazzoni Center's teenage clients, many of whom are homeless and HIV-positive.

Megan Betteridge, president of the BSN class of 2011, urged her classmates to participate, saying, "We're going to be nurses, this is something that we need to do." Betteridge notes that similar drives were going on around campus in response to the earthquake in Haiti, but despite the challenge, the drive collected five overflowing boxes of items. She plans on continuing the initiative next winter. "The success of the Warm Hearts, Warm Hands drive proves what civic leaders we have here at Jefferson," Shaffer said.

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