February
2003

Lehigh Valley Hospital
NICU Parent support Group Newsletter

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September 2002

Congratulations to the McFadden Family

Kyle Jameson McFadden was Kyle was born at 36 ½ weeks

born on November 22, 2002. and weighed 7 lbs. 7 ¾ oz.

Valentine’s Day Party

Saturday February 15^th

2 pm

LVH Cedar Crest & I78
Classroom 1

Love is in the air and what better way to show that than to attend our
Valentine’s Day Party. Who better to love than our Miracle Babies!

      Each child will receive a Valentine’ Day                       card and a “little treat” to take home with them.
      Call Colleen Ornosky, 610-867-0704 or                        email rccaornosky@fast.net   she will need
          the names and ages of the children                        attending. We also ask each family to bring
        some little goodie to eat (i.e. cookies,                      cupcakes, brownies, chips, dips, etc). Let
                Colleen know what you plan to bring so we don’t have everyone bringing the same thing.

Craft Project Helpers Needed

We will be making gifts for the NICU and PNU for Valentine’s Day on Sunday, February 9^th at 2:00 pm

We will also be making the “little treats” for the children attending the Valentine’s Day Party on February 15^th at the same time. If you would like to help, call Colleen Ornosky at 610-867-0704 to sign up. We will be working at Colleen’s house at 1729 Bayard St, Bethlehem. You can bring your children along and they can all play together while Mom socializes and makes the gifts.

Volunteer Opportunities for 2003

	Holiday Gift Coordinator. This person would purchase the materials needed to make gifts for NICU/PNU, schedule special group sessions for big holiday projects, coordinate the distribution of projects to parents who are interested in making gifts while at home, and making sure gifts are to the hospital before the day they are to be given out or coordinating with visitation parents how gifts will be delivered/picked up.
	Newsletter Research. This person would be responsible for researching articles for the monthly newsletter and clearing any medical articles with the NICU.
	Speakers for Monthly Meetings. This person would be responsible for scheduling speakers for our monthly meetings. We try to have 2-3 speakers each year.
	Group Leader. This person would basically run the group, run the monthly meetings, coordinate the volunteers and do any of the jobs that have not been filled

If interested in any of the above positions, please call Colleen Ornosky, 610-867-0704 or email at rccaornosky@fast.net

Holiday Pictures. At various times of the year the Parent Support Group goes into the NICU and takes pictures of the babies as gifts for the families. We are looking for someone to help Kerry Williams with the pictures and the paperwork.

If interested, please call Kerry Williams at 610-820-9412 (work) or 610-261-0151 after 5:00 (home)

Thank you to our Tuesday night support parents

December 2002

Carol Fryling
        Maria Miller
        Jennifer Burkhardt
        Allison Todd
        Dawn Whitehead

January 2003

        Kerry Williams
        Lee Ann Harwi
        Gayle Jones

Chinese Auction is just around the corner!!!!

Don't wait to collect your donations because the pre-sale list deadline is March 15^th. What that means is that all of the donations that we have received up until that date go on a list for people to purchase their tickets ahead of time. Each person writes the number of tickets they would like placed in each bucket on the list and we place the tickets in for them the days of the auction. This enables people who live far away or who would not be able to attend the auction to participate, and they do not need to be in attendance to win. The pre-sale sheet also gives businesses free advertising, since it is circulated to all of our families (about 1100), hospital employees (thousands) and everyone’s family and friends. With the addition of e-mail and the web site our pre-sale sheets have an even larger target audience.

Enclosed you will find a copy of our donation request letter, which you can copy, write your name, address, phone number on and send to businesses that you know and frequent. Think of family and friends who own businesses or work at places that would be interesting donations. Whenever you go to swim class, gymnastics, a play, a store, dinner, or work take along a copy of the letter, you never know who might donate unless you ask.

Please bring any Chinese Auction donations that you have to the March monthly meeting to be included in the Presale!! Please call Cheryl Endy 610-261-2559 or Colleen Ornosky 610-867-0704 if you have donations and will not be able to attend the meeting. Pre-sale items due March 15^th to be included on the list.

March of Dimes Walk America is here!

For those of you who walked last year, you should have received your pledge cards in the mail already. If you did and are planning on walking again, please send your registration cards ONLY, not your pledges to Maria Miller, 1012 8^th St. Whitehall, PA 18052. All of our cards need to go to the March of Dimes together so our team is registered correctly. IF you already mailed it in please call Maria and let her know.

If you did not walk last year but would like to join our team this year, please contact Maria or come to our March meeting to get a pledge card.

You can walk with your kids (in strollers) or you can choose to walk without them. You can walk the whole race, about 8 miles or at any time you can take a "Victory Van" back to the party at the end. It really is a nice day and you don't notice that you just walked 8 miles! Walk as a family, get friends to join in…..there are prizes from the March of Dimes and food and massages at the end!

Chinese Auction Annual Fundraiser

The NICU Support Group tries to limit its fundraising to one event a year, the Chinese Auction. This event consists of gathering donations of products and services from local businesses. Usually parents start with businesses run by family and friends or ones they frequent often. Others choose to purchase items to donate from their family. Each of these items then goes on tables for display with a bucket in front of each item. People purchase tickets and place them in the buckets of the items they would like to win. At the end, one ticket is drawn from each bucket and we have a winner. You do not have to be present to win. We also mail out pre-sale flyers in our newsletter, which lists all the items we have collected so far and this allows family and friends who can not attend the auction to purchase tickets for the items they like.

Last year we raised over $5800 and had 195 donations. This enabled us to sponsor all of the events and programs through out the year! We had a wonderful response from the community with fantastic donations. I can’t wait to see what we accomplish this year, it is so exciting!

How can you help!!!!

*Collecting donations-ask friends, family and local businesses that you frequent to make a donation, our official letter is enclosed in this newsletter. Make as many copies as you like, or call me for more copies. Start right away. Many businesses have to review donations with head offices or boards and they only have a specific amount they can donate per year.

*Sponsor a donation-donate an item, basket of fun or gift certificate in your family or child’s name OR get together with other families and donate a bigger item.

*DONATIONS CAN BE BROUGHT TO ANY MONTHLY MEETING OR DROPPED OFF AT COLLEEN ORNOSKY’S HOUSE. All submissions are due by March 15^th to make it into the Pre-sale flyer. Last minute donations are taken until May 9^th.

*Sell Pre-sale tickets-the pre-sale flyer will be in the April newsletter or you can call Colleen and receive a copy. Make as many copies as you like. Take them to work, church, everywhere, and bring the money and sheets to the auction, or hand them in earlier. If everyone gets 5 people to buy pre-sale tickets we could help every family that is discharged from the NICU!

*Help with setting up on Thursday, May 15^th, in the evening- we need people to load and unload the donations, set up tables, display donations and put out coffee cans, so that everything is ready to go Friday morning.

*Man the tables and sell tickets-we need people to sell tickets on Friday, May 16^th and Saturday, May 17^th at the auction.

*Call winners and help with the drawings-we need people to come on Saturday to help with the drawing and calling winners to come pick up their prizes.

Mark your calendars and get ready for another fun filled & exciting Chinese Auction! Together we can have another GREAT year!

NICU P.S.G. Contact Person Changed

The new contact person for anyone wishing to speak with a trained support parent or just to ask a question is Kerry Williams.

You can call Kerry with your questions or your requests to speak with someone who has had a similar NICU experience. Her work number is 610-820-9412 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Her home number is 610-261-0151 after 5:00.

Donations needed

The NICU is in need of donations of clothes and socks.

As many of us probably remember, every time your baby needed a new outfit the pickings were slim and the socks had disappeared.

If you have any tenderly worn clothes, either size preemie or small, and socks that you would like to donate, please bring them to our next meeting or call Colleen Ornosky, 610-867-0704.

Hello Everyone!!

Well, I have to say I am not the person Michelle was. The four hours a week that preschool gives me is not enough time to do everything for the group. Also, my travels don't take me past the hospital, so I have discovered I am not the right person for the job. I will still be helping out, and I will still be doing the website, but it's not fair to anyone involved for me to stay as the leader. So let me know what you would want to see on our website that would be helpful!! The best way to contact me is tripmom@ceinetworks.com!