Thirteen-year-old Braeden Lohmann did not expect his front room to turn into a mountain of blankets, but that is exactly what happened after a simple idea for confirmation hours grew into a community wide show of generosity.

Braeden, an eighth grader at Hastings Middle School, had been working on service hours for St John the Baptist Church in Vermillion. He started by making eight tie blankets out of Halloween fabric for Gillette Children’s Hospital. Once they were finished, he reached out to his neighbor Shannon, who works at the hospital. She told him the timing could not have been better because the hospital was running short on blankets. Braeden asked if they could organize a blanket drive. “She said YES!!!!!” he said.

With that, he set a goal of one hundred blankets and shared the idea on Facebook, offering a drop off at Vermillion Pump and Market. One of the first replies came from a friend who had bought fifty blankets for her daughter’s wedding. They were never used, and she offered to donate all of them.

“After that I had a pretty good idea that we could make the goal,” Braeden said. They reached one hundred blankets in two days.

The goal was quickly bumped to two hundred. Eight days later the count hit 332.

“It was fun to see people drop them off. Some dropped one off some two some ten,” Braeden said. “I just never knew it would be so successful.” He stored every blanket in the front room of his home. His mom picked up daily donations and Braeden counted them each night. “It was exciting,” he said.

When it came time to deliver the haul, Shannon arranged for Braeden to see where the blankets would go. His cousin Katie, a nurse at Gillette Children’s Hospital, helped too. Two vehicles were packed to the roof. They unloaded blanket filled bags on a Saturday morning, carrying them office to office where each one would be checked in and professionally washed. Staff gave the group a short tour, including the Ronald McDonald House, therapy rooms, playground, and various play spaces.

“That was really interesting and amazing,” Braeden said. Later that night he and his mom talked about how fortunate they felt, and how grateful they were for the families who depend on the hospital. Comments on Facebook reinforced that feeling. Families shared how meaningful the blankets were during their stays. Nurses told him that one of the best parts of their job is “picking out a new blanket to give to their patients.”

“This blanket drive made me really happy because I got to help people and I got to see how a couple social media posts can pull people from all directions that also want to help people,” Braeden said. “Together we made it happen and now 332 kids will be able to snuggle with a new blanket, and I hope it makes them feel happy.”

He already has plans for next year. He even has a name in mind: Braeden’s Blanket Drive.