From: lev@slced1.nswses.navy.mil (Lloyd E Vancil)
Newsgroups: misc.kids
Subject: Quilts for abandoned babies
Date: 16 Apr 92 17:02:37 GMT
Organization: NSWSES, Port Hueneme, CA


 Here is an article about an effort my mom is involved in.  I thought
there might be those out there who would be interested in helping
or maybe getting involved.


Printed without permission.............  Darlene Powell is my Mom...    :-)
by Marnie Oberle
of the Peoria Journal Star
EDELSTEIN - Hundreds  of babies the  Chicago and Peoria 
 area are wrapped in the love of Darlene
Powell.
These are babies often abandoned by their own mothers.  
Mothers who in birth have passed the death
sentance of aquired immune deficiency syndrom.  Mothers whose 
addictions breed infants who need to
be weaned from cocain.
"They're born with it. It's not their problem," said Powell, 
the mother of six grown children and 17
grandchildren.
Most of these babies wont know what it is like to be enveloped 
in the closeness of their mother's arms.
So Poweel extends the warmth of strangers through handmade quilts.
More than 500 of them since June.
"It's just people wanting to help babies," she said.
Powell became involved with the quilt project last March after a 
meeting of the Cooperative Extension
Service in Champaign.
"We had a speaker who really got people motovated.  And I came 
away from that meeting and said I've
got to do something," Powell explained.
That something was ABC (At-risk Baby Crib) Quilts, a volunteer 
project started in a small New Hampshire town in 1988.  It was 
in Northwood, N.H., that Ellen Ahlgren read an article about an
estimated 3,000 babies who were abandoned to short lives in the 
hospital because they were infected with the HIV/AIDS virus.
From 24 quilts delivered  to  a  Boston hospital in 1988 to  
32,000 to date, ABC quilts has spread to 40 states, Puerto Rico, 
Chile, the former Soviet Union, and Romainia.
More are needed .  An estimated  50,000  to 100, 000 more are  
needed to keep  up with the  number of babies born with the HIV 
infection or with a drug addiction.
"I  got  a  call last month and they  wanted  100 and I had 80.   
I was able to get 20 more, but I know she's going  to call again," 
Powell said.
"I need them.   I need  the quilts bad," she said. "Ive got more 
calls than I have quilts."
Powell deals with Catholic Social Services, an Aids network in 
Chicago and a Chicago group that helps crack coacain addicted babies.  
The need is so great there, she often dosen't have many left for Peoria.
Volunteer quilters range from an 80 year old central Illinois 
woman to Brownie troops in the Quad Cities.  Powel herself has
made eight since June and has two more in the works.
Quilters are asked to use all cotton or a cotton-polyester 
blend because the "blankees" must be washed in very hot water 
in the hospitals.  All donors are asked to sign their name and 
hometown though many forget.
"It's fun. It's like christmas," Powell said when the boxes 
arrive.  I get to open them all like they are mine then I get 
to give them away."
The quilts range from the elaborate piece work to the simple 
knotted.  Powell's duty is to check for pins - and she's found 
several - repackge  them  and send the boxes.
ABC Quilts is all volunteer  so she  gets no financial help 
to buy the tape and pay the shipping costs.
It's all a labor of love.
   Darlene Powell can be reached at 19316 N hakes Road,
Edelstein Il, 61526
or 309-249-4281


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Newsgroups: misc.kids