When UTM alumni Angie Dunagan called the Learning Resource Center with an idea to decorate the emergency pediatrics ward of the Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, the staff jumped into action.

The patients in the ward are all children. The hospital staff felt that the décor of the ward was boring and not suitable for the children who had to stay there.

Dunagan graduated from UTM in May 2002 and is now a child life specialist at Baptist Memorial Hospital. She teaches the children who come to the emergency pediatrics ward about the procedures they will be undergoing through medical play.

She felt the ward needed something to make the children feel more comfortable during their stay.

Dunagan began working with Holly Ferguson, the graduate assistant in charge of textbook adoption, at the Learning Resource Center (LRC). They worked out an agreement in which the LRC would donate materials to decorate the ward.

Ferguson and other staff members went to work using LRC supplies to create decorations to hang on doors and walls in the emergency pediatrics ward.

During spring break, Ferguson traveled to Baptist Memorial Hospital, and she and Dunagan decorated the ward. They hung shamrocks on patients’ doors and hung stars from the ceiling. Together, they created a bulletin board with a springtime theme to cheer up the patients.

In addition, they left handmade bookmarks in the reading center of the ward for use by patients.

By the time the project was completed, the LRC had donated about $50 worth of supplies. Dunagan said it was all worth it.

“The children really like the decorations. When they walk past them, they feel like things are a little more normal, as if they were just at school.” Morale has definitely improved now that the decorations are in place.

Ferguson put many hours into creating the paper decorations in the media lab of the LRC.

Ferguson said, “I loved working at the hospital. It was a great experience I won’t soon forget. But it would not have been possible if the LRC hadn’t donated the materials.”

Rhonda Shanklin, director of the Learning Resource Center, had this to say, “We like to do things for the public whenever possible. When Angie called us with the idea, we jumped at the opportunity. Projects like this one are good for the soul.”

The mission of the LRC is to provide innovative educational resources, ideas, models and exceptional service to UTM students, faculty, staff and community members.

The Learning Resource Center is located on the second floor of Gooch Hall. The center is open Monday-Thursday 8 a.m.-8 p.m. and Friday 8 a.m.-5 p.m.