Warm and fuzzy

Aimee Pontrelli, Baldwin Life Stitches founder, with SNCH nurse Alysson Ornstein and Chaplain Allen Siegel.

Donovan Berthoud/Herald

Blankets for premature infants included a prayer card.

Donovan Berthoud/Herald

Baldwin Life Stitches, a charity crafting group, donated blankets to the South Nassau Communities Hospital recently. Above, from left, were the hospital’s Chaplain Allen Siegel, Gayle Somerstein (nursing director), Misako Miller (maternity coordinator), Theresa Groder (nurse), Aimee Pontrelli (Life Stitches founder), Alyson Ornstein (nurse), Kacey Verity, Doreen Bennett and Jacoba Evans of Life Stitches and Joe Lamantia of SNCH.

Donovan Berthoud/Herald

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Baldwin Life Stitches, a group of caring

crafters, recently donated 60 blankets to patients at the South Nassau Communities Hospital in Oceanside. The group, which founder Aimee Pontrelli described as “a community-based … organization dedicated to the advancement of primary education and charity in Baldwin,” hand-stitched 35 baby blankets and 25 prayer shawls and delivered them to representatives from SNCH.

The arrangement between the hospital and Life Stitches, Pontrelli said, began at the Baldwin Rotary Club, where she met Ethel Simmons, who works at the SNCH’s External Affairs Office. “I met Ethel when she was the president of the Baldwin Rotary Club when I joined in 2012,” Pontrelli explained. “She helped with arrangements for the first donations.”

Pontrelli added that group members hoped their handiwork would improve the “quality of life of those who may welcome some comfort during a convalescence.”

Baldwin Life Stitches members meet once a week, and are involved with many charitable endeavors in addition to their work with SNCH. They contribute hand-made shawls, blankets and scarves to babies, elders and ailing soldiers, and also hope to establish a scholarship that would be presented to a graduating student from Baldwin Senior High School in recognition of his or her dedication to local charities. To learn more, visit the Baldwin Life Stitches website, www.baldwinlifestitches.com.