The Coronado High School Architecture and Design Club is looking to spread warmth and holiday cheer in a blanket drive for homeless veterans in need.
Through Dec. 15, the club is accepting blankets at collection boxes placed inside the front offices at Coronado High School, Coronado Middle School and Village Elementary School.
“Our veterans sacrifice time with their friends and family to safeguard our country, and we want to give back to them this holiday season,” said CHS junior Madison Brown, the club’s vice president.
Club members said they hope to collect over two dozen blankets. After Dec. 15, the club will connect with the Warrior Village Project, which will facilitate the distribution to veterans through nonprofits in San Diego.
“(Blankets) can be used, they can be new, they can be handmade, any type of blanket,” said CHS senior Daniel Vinegrad, the club’s president.
Veteran-centered club engagements
Vinegrad said the idea for the blanket drive came to him during a walk on the beach around Veteran’s Day.
“One blanket would make a difference in someone’s life,” said Vinegrad. “That’s what I hope we can do. I want to make a difference in our veterans’ lives.”
Vinegrad said the Architecture and Design Club has held three meetings this year welcoming over one dozen student members.
Vinegrad says the club’s past connection to the Warrior Village Project, to support veterans, extends to this year.
The Warrior Village Project is a non-profit founded by Mark Pilcher in 2019 which collaborates with the building industry, nonprofits serving veterans, high schools and colleges, business and private donors, and private citizens to provide affordable, permanent housing for homeless veterans while training the next generation of homebuilders, says its website.
Pilcher said last school year, the Coronado High School Architecture and Design Club helped out with architectural and construction plans that resulted in a rendering of tiny houses.
This year, Pilcher said the club is using computer-aided design software to produce architectural drawings that match all the details of the houses being built.
“Going forward we will build future houses to the plans as laid out by the students in the architecture club instead of the plans that we purchased,” said Pilcher. “So it’s going to have many of the same bones and skeleton, but there’s going to be differences.”
Vinegrad said the club’s officers have primarily done the work to update the models using 3D computer-aided design but he hopes to give other student members that same opportunity once everyone has access to the software, called Home Designer Suite.
“As someone who grew up in a military town and who has had family relatives in the military, I wanted to get back to the veterans who served our country,” said Vinegrad about the club’s initiatives this school year. “(The Coronado High School Architecture and Design Club) gives students an outlet to explore architecture and design while giving back to their community.”
Showing veterans they are appreciated is also personal for Brown, whose family dedicated part of a highway in South Carolina to her grandfather who served in the Vietnam War.
“You get to explore your interests while providing and giving back to your community … back to those who help you and your country,” said Brown about the importance of the club’s presence on campus.
For more information about the club, visit its Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/architecture_club_chs/.
