Downriver Students Meet at Trenton High School to Fashion Blankets, Big Ideas

Among the blanket making and leadership training at Trenton High School Tuesday was a massive collective of young minds deciding the futures of thousands of students across Downriver.

Trenton Student Council members hosted the year's first Student Council Downriver League meeting, which included students from Allen Park, Wyandotte, Taylor Truman, Taylor Kennedy, Melvindale and Southgate.

Student Council President Joe Lesada and Vice President Hana Mitsusada-Boylan helped organize the event.

"These are students from similar schools who can all bring something different to the table," Lesada said.

Students met to discuss several topics and exchange ideas regarding annual events like Homecoming and student council elections.

Former Grosse Ile resident Emily Shaller, founder and chief executive officer of the Rock CF Foundation, spoke at the meeting.

Rock CF, a national organization dedicated to raising funds to cure cystic fibrosis, was recently selected as the Michigan Association of Student Councils' Charity of the Year. Rock CF is based in Trenton.

Shaller, a cystic fibrosis survivor,  said she anticipates students across Michigan to raise up to $40,000 for for her foundation. All monies raised go to continue awareness campaigns, the Rock CF RocksBack Program and support the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation's research efforts that are continuously improving the quality of life for patients with cystic fibrosis, according to the Rock CF website.

Lesada expects Trenton students will raise $5,000 for Rock CF this year. He added he would like to raise the money to both benefit the foundation and for a chance to win an award at the Student Council State Conference in March.

"It's feasible," Lesada said of meeting the lofty goal. "It will take some work for sure."

In between leadership and communication-based activities students sat on the library floor and made 14 fleece blankets out of donated materials to be given to patients at Oakwood Southshore Medical Center.

The effort is part of Oakwood's Spread the Love campaign, which collects blankets made by volunteers and gives them to people who are trauma patients, victims of accidents, dead, lonely etc., according to Chaplain Jody Petrie of Oakwood Southshore.

"They lift people's spirits and remind them that they are loved," Petrie said.

Lesada said he and his fellow council members typically make blankets for Spread the Love at any number of student council events throughout the year.

The Student Council Downriver League includes Trenton, Allen Park, Wyandotte, Taylor Truman, Taylor Kennedy, Melvindale, Woodhaven, Carlson, Lincoln Park and Southgate. Some schools were not present at the meeting.