Care Wear: the True Definition of ‘Helping Hands’

By Al Cunniff

Serendipity is defined as something that happens by chance in a happy or beneficial way, and I was fortunate enough to experience serendipity recently.

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A friend of mine who is a prolific knitter told me that she had created a large number of infant-size knitted caps that she wasn’t sure what to do with. I immediately recalled that my primary care doctor served on the board of an organization that donates handmade clothing items to hospitals that care for premature and low birthweight infants.

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My doctor put me in touch with Bonnie Hagerman, a retired Hood College faculty member in Frederick, Maryland who founded and heads an organization called Care Wear Volunteers, Inc. I was privileged to bring Bonnie the caps made by my friend, Carole Arengo, and to learn more about Bonnie's terrific organization.

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Bonnie told me that she became interested in the needs of preemie infants after she read a story in a 1990 issue of “Christmas Ideas” magazine that described how volunteer crafters in Akron, Ohio were making tiny stocking caps and booties and donating them to the local Children’s Hospital Medical Center, which cared for 100 to 150 premature babies each month.

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Bonnie began knitting and sewing preemie items as a personal community-service project, but quickly realized that she could not supply enough to satisfy the needs of even one area hospital. So she started Care Wear in 1991 and recruited others to provide much-needed apparel for premature and low birthweight infants undergoing treatment in neonatal intensive care units at several children’s hospitals in the Washington, D.C. area.

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Care Wear has since grown to a nationwide initiative with hundreds of volunteers supplying items for infants and adults at hundreds of hospitals, nursing homes, pregnancy centers, cancer centers, fire and police departments, and social service agencies in almost every state, including approximately 20 hospitals in the Baltimore-Washington area.

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Care Wear items are distributed free to infants, children and adults, and volunteers knit, sew or crochet far more than infant items. In addition to caps, blankets, booties, stuffed toys and other items for infants, they make tote bags for nurses who visit discharged patients, lap blankets for veterans in hospitals or hospice care, walker caddies, neck pillows and more, including, sadly, burial gowns and burial shrouds.

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The organization publishes a?92-page full-color book of knit, crochet and sewing patterns and a quarterly newsletter that includes photos of items made by participants, additional patterns, hospital updates and articles of interest.

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Care Wear Volunteers, Inc. is an IRS-approved 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. There is no membership fee and volunteers supply all their creations free to infants, parents, patients, hospitals and social service providers. Volunteers purchase their own sewing, knitting and crocheting supplies, but additional supplies are always needed and the organization does have expenses—for printing and postage, insurance, telephone and Internet service and miscellaneous office expenses—so it welcomes donations of money, yarn, fabric and other materials.?

To volunteer, donate, receive a copy of the Pattern Book, subscribe to the free quarterly newsletter or learn more about Care Wear, contact founder Bonnie Hagerman at 301-620-2858 or 301-695-5530 or at [email protected], and be sure to visit www.CareWear.org

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