We Care Blankets still expanding

Nonprofit distributes blankets to children with cancer across the country

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Despite the hot summer weather on Wednesday, the Merrick Library was bustling with Nassau County residents organizing stacks of multi-colored blankets. The nonprofit We Care Blankets held its tri-monthly, in which participants bag and distribute handmade blankets to children undergoing cancer treatment across the country.

Tamara Baker, the organization’s founder, was inspired about 16 years ago when she was visiting Dr. James Bussell at the NY Presbyterian Cornell Weill Hospital in Manhattan. When Baker was diagnosed with ITP, a rare blood disease that often affects children, her search for proper treatment led her to the pediatric oncologist.

While waiting in his office, Baker befriended his other patients, most of whom were children undergoing chemotherapy. “When I left the hospital I looked to the sky and asked God to help me find a way to help these children,” she said.

Baker explained that the idea to send blankets stirred in her mind and, eventually, she began purchasing yarn and spread word of her mission. The community rallied behind her goal and began sending her blankets, which she stored in the office where she worked in Merrick. We Care Blankets soon relocated to the Merrick Library and New York State Assemblyman Dave McDonough helped the nonprofit receive state funds to fulfill its goal.

Baker said that the most rewarding part of the process has always been “knowing that someone one there, that we don’t know, will recover with the love we sent them.”

Some hospitals are Memorial Sloan Kettering, Yale/New Haven, Schneider’s Children’s Hospital, Winthrop and many others. However, We Care Blankets is expanding on a global level as Distribution Director Jana Rabinowitz has reached out to a friend in Israel to continue the project abroad.

Those interested in getting involved can donate funds, yarn or their time by crocheting or knitting blankets and sending them to Baker. For more information, call Baker at (516) 797-2250, e-mail tamabak9@aol.com or visit www.wecareblankets.org.