ArtCares for Kids, the Key Biscayne Creative Sewing Group and Key Biscayne Community Foundation have teamed up to support ICU Baby, a non-profit which offers a variety of resources to help families with babies in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in hospitals in Florida and beyond.
The three groups collaborated to create and collect thoughtful gifts for ICU babies including onesies, bibs, socks and handmade baby blankets.
ArtCares for Kids is a Miami-based nonprofit organization serving children in medical settings dealing with psychological, emotional and physical challenges.
“Art provides a nonverbal way for children to express their feelings and traumas. It helps them assert their individuality and prevent their illness from defining who they are,” said Clinical Art Therapist Liz Portuondo, who along with Tania Quintana and Dorian Rosen founded ArtCares for Kids in 2010 to help children in the Pediatric Oncology and Transplant units at Jackson Memorial’s Holtz Children’s Hospital.
The Key Biscayne Community Foundation said it is “proud to celebrate this heartfelt community collaboration and the comfort the gifts will bring to families experiencing the NICU.”
An ICU for babies is a specialized hospital unit that provides intensive medical care for newborns who are premature, ill or have health complications.
The NICU provides a controlled environment with advanced technology and trained healthcare professionals to support the baby’s growth, stabilize vital functions and manage critical health issues, according to Stanford Medicine Children’s Health.
When a baby is born, their body systems must function independently, including breathing, circulation, digestion, kidney function and immune defense.
Some babies struggle to make this transition due to prematurity, complicated births or congenital conditions.
The NICU helps the babies by providing critical medical care including, respiratory support such as ventilators for babies who cannot breathe on their own, nutritional support through feeding tubes or intravenous fluids, monitoring of vital signs including heart rate, oxygen levels and blood pressure and treatment for infections or other medical conditions requiring specialized care.
ICU Baby hosts fundraisers to help pay for babies’ medical needs and their parents.
ICU Baby’s most recent public fundraising milestone was a $121,755 campaign on Mightycause, which reached 100 percent of its $100,000 goal and was completed by 185 donors participating.
This figure represents a single, recent fundraising event rather than the organization’s total annual donations.
ICU Baby’s 2023 total budget, including grants, contributions, and other funding, were $678,394.
This includes both direct donations and foundation/grant support, such as $50,000 from the Peter and Anna Kolchinsky Foundation, $23,333 from United Way Miami, and $22,925 from the Ocean Reef Community Foundation, among others
“No baby should be without their parents by their NICU bedside because of financial or emotional barriers,” the organization states on its website. “The NICU should be a family centered, nurturing environment that provides for the particular needs of the whole family. Every family with a baby receiving palliative care in the NICU should have a private room and timely access to their baby with limited interruption before their baby passes.”