Every year, thousands of babies are born prematurely across Tampa Bay. There is a group of seniors living in Lutz who are working hard to make sure these infants stay warm during those precious first few days, weeks and months.
They call the group Beanies 4 Babies, and over the past year, these seniors at the Lutz Senior Center in Hillsborough County have knitted more than 6,000 beanies, booties, and blankets for babies in hospitals across Tampa Bay.
“The greatest thing that you can do in life is give back, and when I get to be with these ladies and the people that we have elsewhere doing the knitting, I mean, it’s hard not to just break down and cry with the joy,” said founder Ron Clark.
Clark’s family knows first-hand the stress that comes with caring for a premature baby. Two of his grandchildren were born prematurely.
“And what I saw was in the nursery some nurses covering the heads of these little babies with tube socks and I was like, ‘what?’ and so I waved the nurse over and I said, ‘why are you doing that?’ she said, ‘oh we got to keep their heads warm,’ and I said, ‘yea but a tube sock,’ and she said, ‘their heads are so small and we don’t have beanies that will fit them,’” said Clark.