Baby with Jacket
In a partnership between CCAI and China’s governmental division overseeing adoptions, the China Center for Children’s Welfare and Adoption (CCCWA), Karen’s Blankets for Babies Project was accepted as an Official Project in 2007. The Chinese name for this project is “ai xin xiao mian tan” and roughly translates to “Little Blanket of Love”, an apt name for this project of the heart.
In addition to spending weekends in her sewing room, Karen has enlisted workers at her company, Sassy Scrubs, a United States based manufacturer of custom made hospital uniforms, to sew baby blankets in their spare time. Her efforts caught the attention of Colorado adoption agency, CCAI, and the officials at China’s CCCWA.
Karen has already sent over 7,000 blankets to Chinese orphanages through her volunteer Blankets for Babies Project. Along with the generous donation of time and resources from Karen, donations of blankets and cash assistance have been received from people and groups throughout the United States, such as Girl Scout troops, church groups, and individual families. One young girl used her recent slumber party as a ‘baby blanket making party’ and shipped Karen dozens of blankets to be sent to orphans in China. This newest shipment of blankets to an orphanage in the NanYang province will allow Karen and her supporters to continue to assist the waiting and foster children of China’s orphanages.
The costs of coal and fuel can be prohibitively high during the cold winter months in many areas of China. Babies and small children in orphanages suffer from the cold temperatures, wearing hats and mittens inside the orphanage building and sleeping zipped up in winter coats. “During severe winter weather”, states Karen, “frostbite becomes a real and serious problem.” It is for this reason that Karen’s project becomes even more important during the winter months. “It becomes more than the comfort of a soft blanket”, says Karen “it also can mean preventing the loss of fingers and toes through frostbite for the smallest babies.”
The Project needs your help! Since it costs nearly $100 for every box of 60 blankets mailed from New York to China, funds are needed to get these warm blankets into the hands of China’s waiting children. Karen is working on negotiating a reduced fee through FedEx and airlines, but it is expected that costs will still be high. Any funds not used for the shipping costs will help Karen purchase more warm and soft fabric, for more blankets.
To help this wonderful project succeed, please visit www.sassyscrubs.com/
Contact Information:
Karen Bradley, Director of Blankets for Babies
One Keuka Business Park, Penn Yan, NY, 14527
315-531-8013
info@sassyscrubs.com
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Sassy Scrubs provides highly customizable scrubs in over 1400 different fabric combinations and they are all custom made in the USA.
Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/
