Strom Thurmond students donate to Shriners Hospital

JOHNSTON, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - Strom Thurmond High School students gathered to raise awareness and money to benefit the Greenville Shriners Hospital.

It was all a part of the fun and festivities surrounding the Strom Thurmond Career & Technology Center’s Future Business Leaders of America Walk for Babies event.

The Future Business Leaders of America is a non-profit national student organization committed to developing and preparing students for leadership in our businesses, government, and communities.

Strom Thurmond High School seniors Laila Lanham, club president, and Taylor Simpkins, vice president, led the student effort to bring the event on March 23.

Lanham says, “We’re walking to raise awareness for premature babies and to the Shriners Hospital in Greenville by raising money for them. This awareness is important because some babies are born early and really small. They have a lot of medical issues so we raise money for further research and to help the parents of premature babies.”

The event was attended by more than 100 students and adults and raised over $600 for the Greenville Shriners Hospital.

Activities were themed to keep everyone’s focus on the primary purpose of the event, all while having lots of fun. Some of the activities included a baby bottle relay, a baby food blind taste test, changing dolls fitted with premature-sized diapers, and five laps around the football stadium.

“Changing a premature baby diaper is harder than you think it is. We did that to show people how small babies really are when they are born early. Those diapers are so tiny,” Simpkins says.

“Some premature babies, unfortunately, do not make it so the very first lap on our walk is dedicated to ing them. The second lap is dedicated to all the babies who fought and survived and are still with us today,” Lanham says.

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