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<p>PRINGLE &#8212; It&#8217;s just a blanket, the thing you pull to your neck while slouching on the couch watching TV, or rush to get under as you go to bed on a brisk night.</p><p>Except these blankets were put together by middle school students and given to a shelter for homeless women.</p><p>&#8220;It was a chance to do something with friends and to do something for other people,&#8221; Rita Palchanis, 13, said with a grin as she showed off one of the blankets she helped put together as part of the SHINE after-school program at West Side Career and Technology Center.</p><p>The middle school students in the program made the &#8220;no sew&#8221; blankets from kits, cutting strips into the four edges of two pieces of material &#8212; turning the edges into tassels, essentially &#8212; and then double-knotting strips from both pieces, tying them into one double-layer blanket.</p><p>&#8220;It was a lot of fun,&#8221; said Rita&#8217;s blanket-making partner, 11-year-old Skyler Stempien, adding the students worked in groups of four or five, doing one blanket a night.</p><p>On Tuesday, the blankets were officially donated to Ruth&#8217;s Place, a temporary shelter for homeless women that became part of the Volunteers of America in 2013. Kristen Topolski, the former director at Ruth&#8217;s Place, who now serves as VOA coordinator for the Wilkes-Barre shelter, told the students about 300 women a year are served by the shelter&#8217;s 30-day program. It&#8217;s designed not only to provide a place to stay but to help them regain a financial footing and permanent housing.</p><p>&#8220;Many of the homeless include children like you,&#8221; Topolski told the students, adding that any donations are helpful.</p><p>SHINE Director Carol Nicholas said the blanket program was the first effort in an idea dubbed &#8220;Giving Back through Engineering.&#8221;</p><p>The next project is to make raised dog beds for area animal shelters, said SHINE assistant director Deanna Drako.</p><p>Brought to Luzerne County in 2015 through a mix of public and private funding, SHINE focuses on the &#8220;STEAM&#8221; subjects: Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math.</p><p>SHINE is short for Schools and Homes in Education. It operated for a decade in neighboring counties before state Sen. John Yudichak, D-Nanticoke, and U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Hazleton, helped launch it in Luzerne County, with Wilkes University serving as a higher education host, providing office space and administrative support.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">John Paul Anderscavage, 12, and Skyler Stempien, 11, carry out bundles of &#8216;no-sew blankets&#8217; that students in the Middle School SHINE program made and donated to Ruth&#8217;s Place on Monday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/web1_TTL022217Blankets1-2.jpg</photo0><caption0>John Paul Anderscavage, 12, and Skyler Stempien, 11, carry out bundles of &#8216;no-sew blankets&#8217; that students in the Middle School SHINE program made and donated to Ruth&#8217;s Place on Monday. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/web1_TTL022217Blankets2-2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Rita Palchanis, 13, and Skyler Stempien, 11, of the SHINE program fold &#8220;no-sew blankets&#8221; students made to donate to Ruth&#8217;s Place. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/web1_TTL022217Blankets2-2.jpg</photo1><caption1>Rita Palchanis, 13, and Skyler Stempien, 11, of the SHINE program fold &#8220;no-sew blankets&#8221; students made to donate to Ruth&#8217;s Place. </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Students in SHINE program donate to Ruth&#8217;s Place</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mark Guydish</p><p>mguydish@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish</p></shirttailMeta></div>

SHINE after-school program students donate blankets to Ruth’s Place