Wiley scouts have community service in the bag

You can put a lot of things inside a bag - even care, smiles and hope.

That’s what the Wiley Elementary School Girl Scout troop #70063 did in putting together “Bags of Friendship” for patients at the Beaumont Hospital Pediatric Cancer and ICU units.

“We want the kids to know that there is someone thinking about them,” said fifth grader Julie Syler.

According to scout Katrina Piotrasch, students fund-raised and accepted donations to purchase gift items at Five Below.

In the end, students raised more than $1,000 to put together 100 bags stuffed with useful items.

The community service project was part of the troop’s goal to earn a bronze patch, the highest honor a troop can earn. The scouts chose the Beaumont project as the best way to meet their goal.

“We knew we wanted to do something for the kids there, and we decided the best thing we could do would be to take bags full of some of their favorite things,” said scout Audry Hayes.

Some of those things included games, toys, stuffed animals, hair accessories, nail polish and candy.

The reusable bags - which read “Get Well Soon” with a drawing of a rainbow - were delivered to the hospital on May 28.