By SIERRA DAVIS | Pali Life Editor
This spring, the Westside Family Health Center (WFHC) waiting room filled up, not with patients waiting to be seen, but with several women from the Pacific Palisades bringing stacks and stacks of handmade baby blankets.
The Blankie Brigade, started Palisadian Cecilia Peck who lives in the Highlands, met for several months to make as many blankets as possible for WFHC patients. Blankets were knitted, felted, crocheted, tied and quilted with all with different colors, sizes and patterns and each blanket came complete with a “Made with Love” tag.
Photo courtesy of WFHC
“This project started as way to get friends together – former Marquez moms – who had lost touch over the years,” said Peck, whose own children are now in their early 20s. “We had so much fun and were much more successful than I had expected.”
Twenty women have now spent more than 500 hours to make almost 30 blankets for moms in WFHC’s Blooming Babies Prenatal Program and Strong Start Pediatrics Program to choose from.
Peck and members of the Blankie Brigade hand-delivered their lovingly made blankets to clients at WFHC early this month.
“Giving the blankets away was very rewarding,” Peck said. “We had way too much fun making them to take any credit for the work, but it was amazing to see everything work together to come full circle.”
Most of the patients at WFHC are low-income and over half have no health insurance. Blooming Babies provides pregnant women with comprehensive prenatal care, including childbirth preparation classes and lactation counseling and support, complete with individualized attention and goal-setting. Strong Start provides sick-child exams and well-child checkups, school-readiness physicals, recommended immunizations, screenings for lead poisoning, hearing and vision tests, books as part of WFHC’s pediatric literacy program, and mother-infant groups.
“Providing a warm, soft blanket to our littlest patients is just one more way to help pregnant women and new moms during a joyful – but also a stressful – time,” said Debra A. Farmer, WFHC’s President/CEO. “But WFHC can’t do it without volunteers like the Blankie Brigade.”
One of the most prolific crafters of the group said “Thank you for allowing us to “pay it forward” to such a worthy organization! Great people, great works, great need, great service.”
To volunteer or donate, contact volunteers@wfhcenter.org, cbernstein@wfhcenter.org.
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