The staff at Parkland frequently expresses their appreciation to
Newborns in Need not only for the quantity of donations received each
month but also for the quality! It is great knowing that the hard work
of our volunteers is truly meeting the needs of the precious babies born
there.
Volunteers often ask "How many of 'these' do they need each
month?" so we wanted to share more about the specific needs at Parkland
with you.
When we delivered the Christmas bags in December, we asked the Parkland team for feedback and their immediate response was "blankets, we can always use more blankets". While we were able to increase our donation of quilts and afghans last year, we could not provide as many flannel or fleece blankets due to the rising cost of cotton. Given our recent grant from TI and the success of the Barnes and Noble fund raiser, we have started buying more flannel this year and we are hopeful that our volunteers will be able to make more of the receiving blankets each month to help meet this need. We have been blessed recently with very generous donations of yarn, cotton fabric and fleece and very faithful volunteers, so we will continue to work to produce as many blankets as possible. Last year, we donated a total of 10,513 blankets (receiving, quilt, fleece, & afghans) and ideally we would like to be able to send out an average of 1000 blankets every month (12,000 for the year). We are focused on raising the funds to be able to buy the raw materials needed this year, so please keep up the great work you are doing on sewing, knitting and crocheting the blankets!
In addition to blankets, we prepare layette packages for Parkland each month which include one of our receiving blankets, a onesie or t-shirt, a hat, and a pair of socks or booties. When available, we will also include bibs or burp cloths. With these packages, ideally we want to provide 200 layette sets each month. There is a limit on space to store these in the nursery at Parkland so 200 bags is the max we generally make up. Some months, we are not able to do the full 200 bags and that is usually due to a lack of onesies/shirts or socks/booties. Given some of these are purchased items, our receipts can vary month to month depending on donations. You can help in this area by hosting a baby shower in your neighborhood, church or community group. If you need more information on how to do that, ask at a meeting or send us an email. We also have great patterns for t-shirts and booties so if you are willing to help sew these items on a regular basis, please let our meeting coordinator, Dotty Darrin, know!
Beyond these 200 layette sets, we do our best to provide extras of the shirts, hats, and socks whenever possible so they are available when needed. They especially need lots of extra hats! Parkland has told us that they could use well over 1000 hats per month if we could provide them. We have really been doing a great job on hats over the last 6 months and we donated 39% more hats in 2013 than we did the year before. This year, we would like to provide an average of 600 hats per month (more during the colder months), so keep on knitting, crocheting, sewing, and loom knitting those beautiful hats for the babies!
You may have noticed Dotty sorting and setting aside some of the clothing at our Saturday meetings. Slightly larger hats can be used by the children's cancer unit and while that is not our primary focus, we do offer them some of our hats when we are able. While the majority of babies in need are full-term babies, we have volunteers who make/buy special items for the premature and sick babies in NICU as well as making special burial clothing and memory envelopes (about 20 each month) for those babies that are lost at birth or in the early days of their lives.
Finally, we have our Christmas project for Parkland. In December, we provide special holiday bags in addition to the normal layette sets. It is our goal to include a warm sleeper or gown in each of these bags rather than a shirt. Collecting enough sleepers for the bags is a year-long project. As we enter the time of year when warm clothing is on sale, please keep your eyes out for great deals on sleepers. You can bring them to any meeting and we will store them for use next Christmas! We also plan to have a Sleepers in September drive again this year, so stay tuned!
If you are unable to make items for Parkland and wish to contribute, please consider making a cash donation for clothing, flannel or batting or doing a collection drive for onesies, sleepers, or socks through your friends, family, church or workplace. Please know that whatever way you are able to support our mission, you are needed and truly appreciated!
When we delivered the Christmas bags in December, we asked the Parkland team for feedback and their immediate response was "blankets, we can always use more blankets". While we were able to increase our donation of quilts and afghans last year, we could not provide as many flannel or fleece blankets due to the rising cost of cotton. Given our recent grant from TI and the success of the Barnes and Noble fund raiser, we have started buying more flannel this year and we are hopeful that our volunteers will be able to make more of the receiving blankets each month to help meet this need. We have been blessed recently with very generous donations of yarn, cotton fabric and fleece and very faithful volunteers, so we will continue to work to produce as many blankets as possible. Last year, we donated a total of 10,513 blankets (receiving, quilt, fleece, & afghans) and ideally we would like to be able to send out an average of 1000 blankets every month (12,000 for the year). We are focused on raising the funds to be able to buy the raw materials needed this year, so please keep up the great work you are doing on sewing, knitting and crocheting the blankets!
In addition to blankets, we prepare layette packages for Parkland each month which include one of our receiving blankets, a onesie or t-shirt, a hat, and a pair of socks or booties. When available, we will also include bibs or burp cloths. With these packages, ideally we want to provide 200 layette sets each month. There is a limit on space to store these in the nursery at Parkland so 200 bags is the max we generally make up. Some months, we are not able to do the full 200 bags and that is usually due to a lack of onesies/shirts or socks/booties. Given some of these are purchased items, our receipts can vary month to month depending on donations. You can help in this area by hosting a baby shower in your neighborhood, church or community group. If you need more information on how to do that, ask at a meeting or send us an email. We also have great patterns for t-shirts and booties so if you are willing to help sew these items on a regular basis, please let our meeting coordinator, Dotty Darrin, know!
Beyond these 200 layette sets, we do our best to provide extras of the shirts, hats, and socks whenever possible so they are available when needed. They especially need lots of extra hats! Parkland has told us that they could use well over 1000 hats per month if we could provide them. We have really been doing a great job on hats over the last 6 months and we donated 39% more hats in 2013 than we did the year before. This year, we would like to provide an average of 600 hats per month (more during the colder months), so keep on knitting, crocheting, sewing, and loom knitting those beautiful hats for the babies!
You may have noticed Dotty sorting and setting aside some of the clothing at our Saturday meetings. Slightly larger hats can be used by the children's cancer unit and while that is not our primary focus, we do offer them some of our hats when we are able. While the majority of babies in need are full-term babies, we have volunteers who make/buy special items for the premature and sick babies in NICU as well as making special burial clothing and memory envelopes (about 20 each month) for those babies that are lost at birth or in the early days of their lives.
Finally, we have our Christmas project for Parkland. In December, we provide special holiday bags in addition to the normal layette sets. It is our goal to include a warm sleeper or gown in each of these bags rather than a shirt. Collecting enough sleepers for the bags is a year-long project. As we enter the time of year when warm clothing is on sale, please keep your eyes out for great deals on sleepers. You can bring them to any meeting and we will store them for use next Christmas! We also plan to have a Sleepers in September drive again this year, so stay tuned!
If you are unable to make items for Parkland and wish to contribute, please consider making a cash donation for clothing, flannel or batting or doing a collection drive for onesies, sleepers, or socks through your friends, family, church or workplace. Please know that whatever way you are able to support our mission, you are needed and truly appreciated!
Article reprinted from February 23, 2014 Newsletter
