Cassandra Kellum
Staff Writer
Mira Costa High School sisters, Piper and Ivy Stevens, recently started a school club to provide support for chronically ill students. Being ill herself, Ivy Stevens was motivated to start the all student club.When Stevens was in her sophomore year at Mira Costa, she began to suffer severe abdominal pain. Ivy was later hospitalized because inability to eat and drink.
“They amended the issue with surgery, but I was left with this nausea that I’ve been trying to manage,” Ivy said.
After dealing with nausea for two years, Ivy attends school online as an 18-year-old after taking a whole year off of school, due to her ongoing medical struggle. During her time away from school, Ivy’s friends and classmates supported her immensely by sending cards and flowers to her in the hospital. This helped Ivy’s support and recovery process, and made her want to return the favor, she said.
“Even though I wasn’t really close to a lot of people, it still made me feel so much better knowing that people were thinking about me,” Ivy said. “I still had a place in the community at Costa because that was something I was really lacking.”
Ivy’s experience in the hospital and support from her fellow friends and classmates inspired Piper, her younger sister. The sisters came together to start a club called “Support Our Students” at Mira Costa, to provide support and deliver care packages to chronically ill or injured students.
“We noticed there are these kids like Ivy who are out for serious medical issues,” Piper said. “I started the club at school, and Ivy does a lot of the work from home, and work together to help a lot of kids.”
The club is dedicated to delivering handmade care packages such as get well cards, small gifts, blankets, candles, movies and fuzzy socks for the chronically ill students. During club meetings, students create care packages, schedule hospital visits, promote the club, and discover new methods of raising money as a team.
“The packages are meant to make those who are out sick from school for extended periods feel special, hopefully like the way I did when I first received those flowers and cards during my time in the hospital,” Ivy said.
The club consisting of 50 students, including all grade levels, meets every other Thursday at Costa. In addition, community fundraisers at local restaurants such as Blaze Pizza and Cafe Rio, help sponsor the club. Most of the club money is raised by participating in club days at Costa, donations, and a bake sale at the beginning of each school year.
“We are hoping to take the journey of Support Our Students outside the walls of Mira Costa in the years and really spread the club out, reaching different communities,” Ivy said. “Hopefully this will inspire others just like it inspired me.”
Both Stevens sisters described how they want to expand the club and help more people, because it is an issue at all schools. The sisters recently reached out to Manhattan Beach Middle School to expand the club, and uploaded a website consisting of event dates, instructions for donations, and club information.
“Hopefully we can spread it to local communities like Redondo,” Piper said. “Because people with problems are everywhere. It’s not just like a localized problem of having chronically ill students.”
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