Every day I see the difference YOU have made in the lives of the families we serve at NICU Helping Hands. Your support makes it possible for us to serve families throughout the year.

As 2018 comes to a close, we know that you may be considering a year end tax deductible gift to a nonprofit organization so we wanted to share with you what your gift to NICU Helping Hands will do in 2019. 

We know you have many choices when making a year end gift and we appreciate you considering our organization and the families we serve.

$10 helps us provide siblings of a NICU baby with activities that help them adjust to their parents and baby being at the hospital. From our Sibling Tote Bags that are filled with age appropriate activities for them to do while visiting at the hospital to our special Sibling Saturday Program where they make a Rice Baby the weight of their NICU baby, your donation of $10 assists us in purchasing needed supplies to welcome and integrate big brothers and big sisters into the world of the NICU.

$30 covers the cost of two day shipping and packaging for one Angel Gown® garment to be sent to a family who has lost a baby. When a family requests an Angel Gown® garment directly from NICU Helping Hands we send a beautiful custom made gown, along with our Resources for Bereaved Families handout and a special card and keepsake Angel pendant.

In 2018 we have shipped 156 urgent gown requests to families across the country. Sadly, we expect these numbers to continue to increase in 2019. Your gift will make it possible for families to receive our Angel Gown® garment, dress their babies in beauty and with dignity and have support materials they desperately need at no cost to them.

Your $50 gift will make it possible for a family to visit their baby in the NICU or purchase groceries when their income may have been impacted by time off from work or a job loss due to the unexpected early arrival of their baby. We work directly with their hospital social worker to make sure we are meeting their most crucial needs.

Unfortunately, we received more requests in 2018 than we were able to fulfill. Your $50 gift will make it possible for a family to visit their baby in the NICU and purchase groceries when their income may have been impacted by time off from work or a job loss due to the unexpected early arrival of their baby.

$100 covers shipping and packaging costs for our hospital carton to be sent to a requesting hospital. This carton is filled with 20 custom made and individually packaged Angel Gown® garments, a special card, a keepsake Angel pendant and our printed Resources for Bereaved Families handout that provides families with information on organizations that can support them after going home from the hospital.

In 2018 NICU Helping Hands Angel Gown® Program provided 3,100 garments (155 cartons) to civilian and military hospitals across the United States as well as to our military base hospitals in Japan, Germany and England. We were also able to serve a village in Kenya where work is being done to improve bereavement care to grieving families.

We need your help to expand this service so every family that loses a baby in 2019 can wrap them in beauty and receive needed resource materials to support them in the days and months after the death of their baby.

$250 will provide 10 families with a beautiful, custom designed baby journal specific to the NICU journey. My NICU Journal provides an opportunity for parents to focus on the positive moments that are occurring developmentally in their baby. Every moment is a great milestone and your gift will make it possible for them to capture it on paper.

$500 helps provide our Journey Bead Program to families in antepartum and the NICU. In the midst of bedrest or a NICU stay, recognizing the “firsts” in a pregnancy and in the life of your NICU baby are priceless and worth capturing for years to come. Your donation will provide parents the opportunity to capture these “firsts” through this program.

$1000 provides a hospital NICU with our customized Parent Support and Education Resource Library. These printed materials are consistent with the most current best practices and peer reviewed literature available. Additionally, a team of trained NICU graduate parents working in the NICU, annually review our materials to make sure we are providing support and education that is regularly requested and needed by NICU parents.

Our Parent Support and Education Resource Library provides an invaluable tool to NICU staff who want to provide the needed emotional and educational support to the families in their care. We are continuing to expand our NICU Parent Support and Education Program to hospitals throughout Texas and across the country in 2019. Your donation of $1000 will help ensure that we can do this and that families admitted to a hospital during 2019 will receive ongoing support and education.

Thank you for joining our team in providing HOPE to all the thousands of families we worked with in 2018 and will work with during 2019. You make it possible for us to provide this priceless gift to so many.  Hope that anchors their spirit, reminds them that they are never alone and that provides encouragement through celebration of the successes and comfort when disappointments happen.

We are so grateful.