Heart-warming goal: blankets for every baby at Parkland

Published: 5/7/2014

On May 7, just a few days before Mother’s Day, moms-to-be at Parkland Memorial Hospital will receive an unexpected, but heart-warming gift. A Mother’s Day shower is being planned by Parkland’s Child Life Specialists who work with mothers hospitalized for medical reasons prior to giving birth.

“Most of these mothers are in difficult financial situations and it’s unlikely they will have a baby shower given for them or receive many gifts for their new baby,” said Madeleine Pennington, Child Life Specialist. “The party will be a lot of fun for them. We’ll have traditional baby shower games and healthy snacks, and best of all, we can’t wait to give them the baby blankets donated by Warm Up America!”

Colorful hand-crafted baby blankets are delivered regularly to Parkland by the nationwide organization of knitters and crocheters called Warm Up America! (WUA), affiliated with the Craft Yarn Council. The group has made it their mission to assure that every baby born at Parkland leaves the hospital in a hand-knit or hand-crocheted baby blanket, lovingly made by people all over the country.

According to Mary Colucci, Executive Director of the Craft Yarn Council in New York City, “Since the 1990s, this wonderful group of volunteers has been knitting and crocheting afghans, caps, scarves and blankets that they donate to various charitable organizations for distribution. WUA started small in Wisconsin, neighbors helping neighbors, and grew to be a huge enterprise that has donated more than 750,000 afghans and other items to organizations like Save The Children and Ronald McDonald House. When we learned about the needs at Parkland where more than 10,000 babies are born each year, we were excited to help.”

Instead of creating full size adult blankets, the WUA project for Parkland asked their volunteers to complete blankets that are approximately 40-inches square, perfect for Parkland’s smallest patients. All blankets are made of machine washable and dryable materials suitable for use in a hospital environment.

Lisa Little, Director of Volunteer & Guest Services at Parkland, met with the Dallas-area representative of WUA, Jenny Bessonette, a few months ago when she inquired if Parkland could use baby caps that the group had left over from a Save The Children Ccampaign.

“We had 35 large boxes, more than 10,000 baby caps, that we needed to give away,” Bessonette recalled. “Lisa said, ‘We’ll take them all.’ It was amazing to learn what a busy hospital Parkland is. I took a tour of Parkland and realized that Warm Up America! could really help patients here. After visiting with the families of newborns at the hospital and seeing how appreciative the mothers were of our handmade gifts, this is a challenge we could not refuse. We reached out to all our volunteers, and the baby blankets started pouring in. We’re very excited to be working with Parkland.”

Many new mothers have already taken their little ones home from Parkland swaddled in one of the donated blankets

“The mothers are thrilled when we give them a blanket for their baby. It’s a wonderful gift and the moms are so appreciative,” said Pennington.

Tears rolled down the cheeks of Veronica Espinoza when she tried to express what the gift of handmade blankets for her baby boy has meant to her. Veronica’s firstborn child Nathan has been a patient in Parkland’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit since he was born three months prematurely in February.

“It helps to see him snuggled in a pretty blanket in his hospital bed, it seems more like home,” she said. “The nurses and doctors at Parkland take such good care of him. When I come to the NICU each day to be with him, he is wrapped in the beautiful blue-and-white blankets. It means so much, I am so grateful.”

At a recent gathering at a church in Carrollton, TX, Bessonette and 10 other WUA volunteers enjoyed a relaxed morning of knitting and chatting. Needles clacking, they acknowledged it’s a joy for them to be able to share the fruits of their labors.

“We all love to knit and crochet,” Bessonnette said. “It makes us happy to know we’re helping these mothers and their babies.”

To learn more about the Warm Up America! project for Parkland newborns, please visit www.warmupamerica.org/parkland. Back