BY WENDI REARDON PRICE
Clarkston News Staff Writer
Sisters Eva and Charley Bousho dropped off 20 blankets to Autumn Ridge in Independence Township this month.
The blankets weren’t just regular blanket- they were fidget blankets for memory care patients.
Eva, a freshman at Clarkston Junior High School, and Charley, a seventh grader at Sashabaw Middle School, made them as their Girl Scout Silver Award project which began as identifying an issue they care about which is helping other who are alone during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“During the pandemic we were not able to see our relatives that were seniors because we wanted to keep them safe,” Eva and Charley shared. “We found out we wouldn’t be able to go to the nursing home to sing with our troop like we normally do at Christmas each year because they weren’t allowing visitors. Many nursing home patients were unable to see family members and others did not have regular visitors anyway.”
They learned several facilities weren’t able to allow outside family members and visitors inside the facility. Patients would sit with visitors to help sooth their anxiety.
Eva and Charley’s identified an issue for their Silver Award, which was memory care patients have anxiety or tension in their hands making them to fidget.
Their solution was to make fidget blankets to relieve that need to fidget and restore calm.
“Using various shapes and textures, the blankets keep patient hands busy with familiar movements,” they shared.
They researched the best size to make the fidget blankets. They also decided to put ties on the blankets so they could be tied to the patient’s wheelchair.
“We made the blankets washable so they could be cleaned if they were dirty or being shared with more than one patient,” Eva said.
The next step was making a plan and putting it into motion which included collecting pop cans for donations so they could buy supplies for the fidget blankets.
“We accepted donations of supplies and materials to ensure the blankets had a lot of different textures and features to keep the patients hands busy. We recruited other people to help us sew the fidget blankets. We talked to Jordan Houston at Autumn Ridge of Clarkston and he said he would love for us to complete this project for the memory care patients at his facility,” they said.
Eva shared when they dropped off the blankets Houston said he was very grateful to them because it would fulfill a big need in their facility.
“We were so excited to see our project will help them,” Eva and Charley said. “He said he will be putting them to use right away.
The Silver Award is the highest award to earn as a Cadette Girl Scout. Scouts who earn the award completed a minimum of 50 hours each towards the project. Eva and Charley put in over 70 hours each for their project.
They had the option to build a Girl Scout Silver Award team or go solo. They explained they could have up to four team members but decided to do the project as a group of two.
“It was easy for us to work together during the pandemic while social distancing from others,” they said.