NYC Crochet Guild
Marilyn Esposito passed along this letter to Fran Husejinovic from the Project Linus NYC chapter. Many members of the guild contributed including Anna Morgan, Maria Deliz, and Tatyana Mirer whose “Stitches” group made many of the blankets. Members of Tatyana’s group are Helene Smith, Bessie Wagman, Eileen Brozek, Charlotte Russell, Jessie Di Paolo, Jane Kraft, and Olga Mosby.
from Project Linus NYC Chapter & Tina Jenkins-Moore:
“I would like you ladies to know that thanks to you and many others, we were able to take a blanket and add a toy for some wonderful children this holiday season. NYC Nurse's Partnership picked up 120 blankets packaged with a toy and 2 boxes of just blankets for their children to have a little comfort for the holidays. We here at Project Linus NYC chapter are so overwhelmed every time we receive one of your boxes. You guys are so amazing. The ladies are always trying to figure out your different patterns so they can mimic the blankets. Do know that your contribution truly make up most of our distribution each time and we appreciate you.”
And this… from the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to Project Linus describing how the blankets are being used:
“Thank you so much for the wonderful blankets and toys you and your colleagues from Project Linus sent to the first-time moms and their babies and toddlers at our Nurse-Family Partnership site in Queens. As you know, we had a holiday party for our families yesterday, and were thrilled to be able to present them with your beautiful handiwork. The moms at the party loved the blankets, and the nurses will be bringing them to the homes of those moms who couldn't make it to the party. We will be sending some photos of the party.
As you know, the Nurse-Family Partnership (NEP) is a nurse home visiting program for low-income, high risk, first-time moms and their babies. The nurse visits the mom beginning in pregnancy, and continues to visit regularly (every other week on the average) until the child turns two years old. During these 1 1/2 hour visits, the nurses focus on health issues for mom and baby with an emphasis on prevention; maternal role and parenting; environmental issues in the home, neighborhood, and community; maternal life course; and strengthening mom's support network of friends and family. NFP sites in New York City are expanding at a clip; with our partners, we run/monitor three programs in Queens, Manhattan, and Harlem each of which has a capacity to serve 200 families. In early 2006, Visiting Nurse Service of New York will be opening a site in the South Bronx also with a capacity of 200 families.
We are always looking for appropriate gifts for our families as they reach certain milestones. As in many programs, we utilize incentives as a means of reinforcement and encouragement, and handmade blankets are a wonderful source of both! We would love to continue our relationship with Project Linus and look forward to speaking with you more about this in the New Year.”