Knit for Charity and Care for Cooper
Make a difference and help sick babies when you knit for charity
You know you're doing a good deed when you knit for charity. Whether you knit for the homeless, abused, or underprivileged, it gives you a great sense of satisfaction. As much as I enjoy knitting for all these causes, charities for babies are still my favorite.
Knowing that the teeny-tiny hats and booties will comfort a baby in NICU and knowing scared and upset parents use the soft baby blankets to wrap their sick baby in touches my heart.
If you would like to help knit for premature and critically ill babies but don't know where to donate, here's a great baby charity who greatly appreciate all donations.
Caring for Cooper
The name 'Caring for Cooper' comes from Cooper University Hospital in Camden, New Jersey. This non-profit knitting charity knits year-round and donates their items four times each year. A local volunteer collects the hand-knit items each quarter and personally delivers them.
There are a large number of babies born at Cooper Hospital every year with the majority of the babies belong to families that live below the poverty level. Cooper is a large hospital with a 27 bed neonatal unit, a mother and infant unit, and labor and delivery unit.
The hospital provides a hat, diaper shirt and one diaper to every baby that leaves the hospital. Many times, this is all the baby has. To bridge this gap and provide the baby with clothing, knitting charities like Caring for Cooper come to the rescue. Cooper needs items such as baby hats, booties, layettes, diaper shirts, isolette and receiving blankets.
The volunteers that knit for Cooper are an Internet-based group from around the United States. On the Caring for Cooper site, you'll find guidelines for what yarns to use, a very long list of free knitting patterns and most importantly, pictures of the babies. If you would like to get an idea of what to knit and see some donated items, visit their 'gifts received' page to see the amazing donations.
To help these babies in need, contact Ginden at ginnie1st@hotmail.com. To become a member of this group and begin knitting for charity, join their Yahoo! Group .
