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Giving Back - Beyond our Surprise Boxes

7/27/2015

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Throughout the year, Gracie's Gowns gives to other organizations as well. Whether it is extra fabric from gown requests, fabric that just isn't quite best for gown requests or even items we have made to be given to other organizations.

I always feel it is important to support other organizations, not only because they support our mission and endeavors, but because many times more than not, they work with a lot of the same children and families that we do...and that is one of the amazing blessings that has come from starting Gracie's Gowns.

So here is some of the places we have paid it forward to this year so far. 

The first one is Madelyn's Hats, which is operated by Melissa in honor and memory of her mother. Melissa makes chemotherapy hats for women battling cancer (and I believe she does make them for children too, though, please do not quote me 100% on that one). We met Melissa on our own Facebook page through a post and just love what she does, so in our donation to her, we included some of our leftover sports team fabrics, and many of the more adult oriented prints and some prints that were too small for gowns, but are the perfect size for her hats.

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Another donation we sent out this year was to another organization called Socks 4 Surgery, which is operated by Ellen. Many of you have probably heard about Socks 4 Surgery if you've been on Facebook for a while and are in groups for parents of children with chronic and life-threatening illnesses. 

Ellen makes amazing onesies, T-shirts, and of course socks, all themed around birth defects and medical conditions. When we moved last year, I packed up my sewing area for not only Gracie's Gowns, but all the years of sewing prior to that which was for business. While unpacking, I found these onesies and T-shirts and immediately thought of Ellen and wanted to send them to her. In that conversation we learned her family member had cancer and was a huge Cleveland Browns fan, so with the onesies, we made a chemo bag cover from remnant fabric from gowns and sent it as well. 

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The other larger fabric donation we have made so far this year was to an organization we have supported several times of the last couple of years, Bee Brave. 

The majority of the time we are sending smaller scrap pieces, but this time we had several large pieces of fabric we had already cut into multiple gowns and then we had several pieces that were just too heavy of fabrics for gown requests, but would be perfect and durable enough for their Busy Buddies. 

Melissa (must be an awesome name for starting organizations), has just recently moved, so Bee Brave is taking a little break while they are getting settled and set back up, but they should be up and running soon! They make amazing activity trays for children with chronic and life-threatening illnesses. 

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Lastly, we have a NICU Smock donation to add to the year. This is separate from our usual NICU surprise boxes because they are not only a part of another organization's care packages, they are for Christmas time. 

Handful of Hope puts together NICU care packages for different holidays throughout the year for Penn Highlands Healthcare in DuBois, Pennsylvania. We have sent them some Christmas gowns in the past and were more than honored to do so again this year. Each year they put together around twenty care packages, so we sent over a few more in case there are several being admitted and discharged from the NICU again this year, or even to go towards next year's care packages. 


No worries, we have been sending out NICU surprise boxes and I do have to get caught up on writing about them, but while I was going through pictures on the computer and updating the website I wanted to share some of the behind the scenes fun we've been having.

Hope everyone has been enjoying their summer so far!

Much Love and Many Blessings,
       Jessica

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Fabric with Lots of Love - Lilahroo's

3/12/2014

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I have the wonderful opportunity to help out another great organization with some fabric to continue their mission. This time it is for Lilahroo's! Monica makes these precious, cozy, comfy and just wonderful blankets for children fighting medical challenges.

Do we have one? No - but my, oh my, you can just see from her photos and stories of children that have received one just how comfy they are! As someone who has made blankets for years, these are great quality, with wonderful fabrics. Cozy flannel on top and super soft minky on the back...perfect blanket ingredients!

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Here is Autumn with her gown and Lilahroo while at her clinic appointment! Doesn't she look super cozy there?!

There website to learn more about what they do, who they are, how to support and even all the stories from families that have received a blanket from Lilahroo's is:

http://www.lilahroos.com/


They are also on Facebook at:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lilahroos/621064347914209

So since the kiddos and I are getting a lot closer to moving time and we've been holding onto some of these fabrics for a while now, without any requests to use them for, here are the cozy flannels we had to send Monica's way and even a minky fabric too:
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They will be on their way shortly - as in probably tomorrow's mail!!
Can't wait to see what little ones get wrapped up in a cozy blankie made from these fabrics.
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Donation to the Little and Dependent

1/25/2014

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Eastern Tennessee Children's Hospital is one of the most amazing children's hospital in the country. Not only do they care for a variety of pediatric illnesses and needs, but they have a super special NICU. 

The reason their NICU is so special is because they are one of the hospitals that treat the highest number of drug-dependent newborns in the United States. And we aren't talking street or illegal drugs...these are prescription pain medications and most obtained under normal circumstance.

These babies are weaned off prescription medication, by being given doses of morphine until they are able to tolerate being completely off any kind of opiate. This process can take days and week to accomplish. The unit can hold 49 infants and over half of them are born with neonate abstinence syndrome (drug-dependent), these babies have to be watched around the clock for seizures and even worse, in case they stop breathing.

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When I was in college, this was a topic I was starting to write a research paper on...it is a personal subject as my youngest was born drug-dependent and not because I misused my pain medication, but because I was given excessive amounts of pain medication between all of our admission during pregnancy for pre-term labor and for the amount of pain I was in throughout the entire pregnancy because of the amount of scar tissue I had and two pregnancies very close together and severe anemia issues as well. 

Only problem was, when she was born, we didn't know what was the cause of all the problems we had in the first two months of her life, until I happened to read a forum on drug-dependent babies and all the pieces fell into place. It was scary.

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So when Ellen from Socks 4 Surgery posted the articles published in 2013 about Eastern Tennessee Children's Hospital and what their NICU was doing - we decided that some extra comfort needed to be sent to these precious little ones as well.

Ellen sent out socks and hair bows and in her awesomeness asked if we had any gowns that we could send their way as well. I had to wait until I got back to the house and went through what we already had sewn NICU Smock wise and put together a box that we will be sending out the the hospital this Monday.

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So in total we have twenty-eight gowns headed to the hospital's volunteer services and some of our brochures to be used throughout the hospital for other children that may want a gown of their own as well.

We will keep praying for the hospital's staff and volunteers that are working with and caring for these precious babies and their families. We pray for the babies and their families as well through this rocky start to their journey and lives. 

We hope these gowns find each little doing the best they can and provide them with a little extra comfort.

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Clicking on the picture above will take you to a brochure (PDF Format) the hospital has created on Drug Use during Pregnancy and about Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome.
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