Club Hopes to Make and Donate Hundreds of Surgical Caps to Local Hospitals 

By: Perla Gonzalez

President Narmin Mekawy leads event that boosts involvement while also helping pediatric patients. Credit: CSI Pre-Medical/Pre-PA

The Pre-Med club plans to create unique and colorful surgical caps for child patients in hopes of relieving the stress of their upcoming procedures. 

“They’re already in a tough environment with parents and doctors telling them what to do,” said Narmin Mekawy. “This gives them a chance to be able to choose for themselves.” 

Mekawy, the President of the Pre-Med Club, was presented with the idea to create surgical caps last semester when a member showed the club a video of another club creating the caps for their local hospital.

 This semester, when she became president, the members brought the idea up again, and everyone wanted to be involved. They began to look into how to make the caps and where they plan to donate their finished caps. 

Mekawy hopes to donate the colorful caps somewhere close to home, like the Staten Island University Hospital. When she reached out to them, they were not only glad to hear that students were interested in helping out pediatric patients, but they had also presented guidelines on what caps they would accept. 

The caps can be made with 100% cotton fabric with no glitter, and then, the hospital would do their own sanitation process once they receive the caps so that they can be ready for surgery use. 

While this is the first event of its kind here on campus, other communities have created surgical caps for their local hospitals. According to Corpus Christi Business News, volunteers have created and donated over 1,000 caps every three months to Driscoll Children’s Hospital back in 2018. The hospital staff felt that the caps helped the patients feel more comfortable 

during their stay. 

While the CSI Connect page, a website where students can check out the upcoming 

events on campus, says that the event was on November 26th, Mekawy plans to make 

this an ongoing project starting this semester and continuing into the next one. She plans to 

create a few hundred surgical caps before she donates them. 

She asks that each member and volunteer donate $10 so they can get the supplies that they need to make the caps. Along with the $10 given by each member, Mekawy plans to host fundraisers to raise money to buy the fabric and supplies needed to make all the caps. 

The $10 will go towards purchasing a yard of fabric, which can make up to four caps, and will be used to buy elastic bands needed to finish them out. Each cap will be made at a standard hospital size in order to fit most children. 

Former Pre-Med club member, Kalindi Mishra, thinks this is a great and unique id “I like that club is doing something we haven’t seen on campus before,” said Mishra. “It’s a nice idea and a great way to help children in need.” 

Since this is the first time the event is occurring on campus, it is something that has interested students outside of the club. “I think it’s great because kids are naturally scared of the doctor’s office, and it could be intimidating for them,” said Allison Ramos. 

“It can also ease their anxiety, too, because it is giving them the power to choose instead of being controlled.” Mekawy hopes that this will inspire other clubs and people to do this and get involved to help their community. 

“It is a good way to help and understand what other people are going through,” said Mekawy. “Not only will you be making a child’s day, but also their parents and the hospital staff when they see strangers helping others.”

Sidebar: Narmin Mekawy is now the current president of the Pre-Med club on campus. She has 

been a member of the club for a while and was one of the three nominees to become the 

President for this semester. Narmin describes herself as the type of person who, when she gets 

involved in something she gives it 100%. 

As a member, she was always involved in the club activities. In her first semester as president, she has led a suicide awareness event for the club and even went to a fundraiser walk. 

The club had a meeting for domestic violence awareness and already has many events that she would like to host with the club lined up. She is a Pre-Med student and is completing her Master’s in neuro-science, is defending her thesis at the end of the semester, and plans to take the GRE and MCAT next semester. 

She is also the president of the Better Education Foundation, a 501C3 non-profit that is trying to provide education outlets to women and children.