NORWAY – The seven Computer-Assisted Drafting fashion design students at Oxford Hills Technical School made comfort pillows and donated them to the Women’s Imaging Center/Reach for Recovery at Stephens Memorial Hospital.

The pillows were an end-of-the-year project for first-year students in the program and the brainchild of Lori Akerberg, ed tech/teacher and a breast cancer survivor.

With the class fashion show over, Akerberg thought making pillows would be a project for students, both to bring breast cancer awareness to the students and do something to benefit the community.

Akerberg said, “This class is mostly young women. This was a fun project that provided a service to the community but also brought awareness to this disease that some of the student might not have had.”

Eileen Laliberte, RTRM, Women’s Imaging Center and the Reach to Recovery representative at the hospital, and Tim Ingram, director of clinical diagnostics, went to the technical school to pick up the pillows.

Laliberte plans to give them out to patients for day use and give a smaller pillow from the American Cancer Society for nighttime use. The pillows the students made have a Velcro strap that can be put over the shoulder to hold it in place during activity.

Laliberte and Akerberg are already discussing plans for future classes to make more pillows for the hospital in an ongoing partnership.

Stephens Memorial Hospital is part of the Maine Health family. Visit Western Maine Health on the Internet at www.wmhcc.org.