RCRV Community Projects
The following project is available:
Contact Information:
Laura Aker (Founder and Project Coordinator)
Email: info@thepreemieproject.com
Phone: (319) 338-6129Please feel free to contact Laura with any questions or concerns. She would be more than happy to help.
Mission: We are a volunteer organization, based in Iowa, that provides hand knit, sewn, and crocheted clothing items to premature babies in neonatal intensive care units. Items are given free of charge to infants and their families. In addition, we provide infant bereavement items such as gowns, layettes, blankets, and items of remembrance for grieving families. We strive to provide warmth and comfort to critically ill, premature infants and their families.
Volunteer Activities #1: Volunteers will knit, crochet or sew preemie clothing and bereavement items. Some supplies may be provided. Most volunteer hours can be completed on a volunteers own time at their leisure.
IMPORTANT things for volunteers to keep in mind:
1. Please use very soft materials. This is extremely important! Preemies have extremely sensitive, paper thin skin that tears easily. The nurses will not use scratchy items. When in Doubt try the Scratch Test:Scratch Test: Rapidly rub the yarn or material on your inner forearm. If the yarn feels scratchy at all it will be much too scratchy for the premature infants. When in doubt, just choose something else.
2. Please do not use or donate wool. Very important! Many Preemies are allergic.
3. Please use acrylic/machine washable materials: The nurses will have to wash everything in the units before they can be used. The items will go through the wash! Be sure to always Pre-Wash your fabric before sewing!!
4. Examples of acceptable and non-acceptable materials. These materials can be found at any craft store, such as Walmart, Ben Franklin, Hobby Lobby, Joann's Fabrics, Hancock Fabrics, etc.This is simply a guideline for choosing yarn:
A. Examples of Acceptable Yarns: Plymouth Dreambaby DK, Wendy Peter Pan, Bernat Softee Baby, Bernat Baby Coordinates, Bernat Cottontots, Caron Simply Soft, Red Heart BABY ONLY, Lion Brand Babysoft, Lion Brand Microspun, Lion Brand Homespun Baby, Pound of Love, Polarspun, etc.
B. Examples of Non-Acceptable Yarns: (These are all too scratchy) Red Heart Sport, Supersaver and Pompadour. Pompadour Yarns are not acceptable.
C. Acceptable Material: Fleece, Flannel, Jersey, Soft Cotton Blends
5. Please check the Measurements Guide, in the Brochure, when making your items. Be sure that items in a set will fit the same size infant. Thanks!
Patterns:
You can find an extensive list of patterns on our website. www.thepreemieproject.com
Click "volunteer" at the left hand side of your screen. Then click "patterns collection" at the top of the next page.Other sites with preemie patterns: http://www.bevscountrycottage.com
http://www.p2designs.com/Links-CharityPatterns.htm
http://home.inreach.com/marthac/preem.html
http://www.knittingpatterncentral.com/directory/preemies.php
Donating Your Handmade Items:1. Where will your donations go?
You will give your donations to Laura Aker to be organized and given to the facilities we support. All Iowa Chapter Donations will go straight to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics NICU and Touching Hearts Program. We hope to branch out to additional Iowa Hospitals in the future. Please contact us with your suggestions of hospitals in need of our support.
2. How do you get your items to Laura?
A. United States Postal Service (This is also Laura Aker's Home address)
The Preemie Project
2607 Flagstone Ct
Coralville, Iowa 52241B. Set-up a time with Laura to drop your donations off at the address above. Another option would be to bring your donations to one of the bi-monthly chapter meetings or another event.
C. Leave your items at one of our donation centers. Be sure to include your name, address, email and clearly mark the items as being for The Preemie Project. It is VERY important that your items are marked for The Preemie Project. We do not want them to be misplaced!
Donation Centers
-Beads and Beyond (Cedar Rapids)
4333 Czech Ln NE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52402-2337
Phone: (319) 743-3444
-Iowa City Senior Center (Iowa City)
(Please leave your items in the gift shop. If it's closed leave them at the front desk.)
28 S Linn St
Iowa City, Iowa 52240
Phone: (319) 356-5220
Website: http://www.icgov.org/senior/
Gift Shop: http://www.icgov.org/senior/eldercraft.htm
Email: Srcenter@iowa-city.org-UIHC Volunteer Office (Iowa City)
(Take the F Elevator to Level8. You can leave your items in the Volunteer Services Office.
200 Hawkins Drive, 8025 JCP
Iowa City, Iowa 52242
319-356-2515 Tel3. Please do the following with your items before donating:
A. Wash them if they are soiled. Please do not use fabric softener.
B. Place each item or set in a separate zip-lock bag (This is to ensure that they will stay clean.)
C. Place a filled out Donation Tag in with each item or set- These tags can be downloaded off of our website. If you're unable to print the tags, you can include the information you would like on each tag in with your donation. A volunteer will copy this information onto tags for you.
- Please write at least your first name and last initial on each tag. You may write additional information you want the family to have, such as your full name, city and state.
- You may include a personal note on the back of each tag, if you wish. Families are often very appreciative of these notes. However it is up to each individual volunteer to decide if they would like to include one.
- Remember that the patients in the hospitals we support are of every race and religion. So it is important that your note does not pertain to one religion. It is always best to generalize.
For example: "Your baby is in my thoughts and prayers." Is appropriate
"Christ will take care of your little one." Is NOT appropriateD. Please include your first and last name, email and home address with your donation. Thank you!
Please Record All Preemie Project Volunteer Hours!We ask that volunteers keep track of all hours they spend volunteering for us. This includes everything! (knitting, crocheting, sewing, to time spent at meetings and events) You will turn in your completed hours at the end of each month. We then turn these hours into the UIHC Volunteer Services Office per their request.
You can turn them in by way of the electronic form on the website:. http://www.thepreemieproject.com/pages/13/index.htm
Or turn them in by email to:
volunteerhours@thepreemieproject.comWe hope that you will turn in your hours so that we can accurately reflect the hours of hard work our volunteers put into serving infants in need. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
Volunteer Activities #2: Create Memory Boxes. These will be given to families who have lost an infant to hold all of the memetos they will take home.
Please see the following site for more info: |
http://www.teraleigh.com/memoryboxes/index.htmlMore information on The Preemie Project can be found on our website:
www.thepreemieproject.comWe ask that volunteers try to attend our meetings and events if possible.
Please contact Laura Aker to be added to a list of volunteers. You may contact Laura by phone or email:
Phone (319) 338-6129
Email: info@thepreemieproject.com