Building Smiles with Legos

Having once stayed at the Children’s Center Rehabilitation Hospital in Bethany, Okla., Rebecca Heiderstadt didn’t hesitate when fellow student Jennifer Taylor asked her to help bring a fun activity to the center. Heiderstadt had suffered an aneurysm at age 11 and spent time there relearning how to walk and talk. Taylor thought up the weeklong Building Pals project, in which one large jar was filled with Legos and patients guessed how many were in the jar. The closest guess won the large jar, and smaller jars were also filled with Legos for each participant. Both Taylor and Heiderstadt, SkillsUSA members at Canadian Valley Technology Center’s El Reno campus, presented their project in the national Community Action competition.