Celebration Boxes For Kapi’olani

The staff at Kapiolani Hospital guestimate that 50 children celebrate their birthday in the Hospital each year. Kids who are hospitalized on their birthday, typically kids with long term illnesses like Cancer, may not have fancy decorations or any other fun stuff to accessorize their celebration. This is not a way for a kid to feel the hope of recovery. If we put together boxes with party supplies then the kids can have a real birthday party in the hospital. The Celebration boxes may also be used for celebrating other milestones as well; things like a final Chemo treatment, an especially rough week of treatment being over, or just a need for a little sunshine in their day. Below you will find a list of suggestions. We suggest that each girl puts at least one box together. If you find good deals feel free to put together as many as you would like or let each sibling put one together for a kid their own age, or recruit aunties, uncles and cousins to put one together too.
 It is totally up to you. In a plastic shoe box size storage container put any of the following:
 8 plates (new in package)
8 cups (new in package)
Party blowers (new in package)
Party favors
 Banners
 Table cloths
 8 Napkins (new in Package)
Decorations
 Crowns
Necklaces
 Small gift item (coloring book and crayons or hot wheels car, mini lego set, etc.)
Birthday card from your child
 Hats

 When you or your group has finished your collection contact us and we will help you coordinate your drop off, or add it to our annual drop off. Mahalo for your support. For more information on how you can help Contact Pastor Laura at danyasgift@gmail.com or Check out the blog site or facebook page. www.Danyasgift.blogspot.com All Donations are Tax Deductable

A little HELP needed

As you know we have been working very closely with the March of Dimes NICU family support to give basic hygiene items to families who have been transported to O'ahu from the other Hawaiian islands in the Stranded Family Bags. It's a huge undertaking and today at our board meeting we discovered that we have some more people who really need our support too. Moms who have been transported on bed rest. Sometime this means that they went to their local doctor, were told to go to the hospital for more tests and then medi-vaced over to O'ahu without ever getting to go home. You can imagine the stress this provides, plus being away from family and close friends can make a girl very lonely in those times. SO they have asked that we put together these beside organizers for every mom on bedrest at the hospital and have some filled with just boredom busters for local O'ahu moms and others for outer island moms filled with basic hygiene stuffs. Everything you get at the hospital has a price tag on it, and often moms can't afford to allow them to give them any thing extra.

So what do I need from you? Help sewing these organizers and things to fill them. I have a very simple pattern and is done as a tutorial so that even the most inexperienced sew-er can put it together. We will be needing lots of these in the coming months, so any help is greatly appreciated. If you know of others who might be interested in sewing with a purpose, please pass it on. Remember that all donations like this are tax deductable, and since federal laws are as they are, I can't asign a value for them, so you will recieve a fill in the blank in-kind donation form. If other people help you, please let me know so that they can get the letter too. There is a list inside the pattern with care package ideas for the organizer. This is not required, but if you happen to have them is great too.

The hospital has been soo impressed with the response that the stranded family bags have gotten that they basically want to do the same thing with Moms on bed rest who get transfered over. They can't have the food stuff as the hospital will provide that for them since they will be admited, but the simple nessasary items are very welcome. We have enough soap, shampoo, and lotion for quite a while but tooth brushes and paste (travel size) are always welcome additions. Also anything to stave off boredom. Things like crafting kits, i.e. cross stitch, and plastic canvas, to books and other distractions.

Again any help is great,

Organizers can be mailed to

Danya's GIft

94-548 Palai Street

Waipahu, HI 96797

 

To get the pattern please email me at danyasgift@gmail.com

Mahalos for all your help!

Dedication Sunday!

Good morning! Today is the day we as a Church dedicate this month as a special collection month. This is the stuff we've collected all year! As I kept pulling it out of the storage boxes I could't believe how much clothing we've collected so far! After looking through everything I'd like to focus our giving for the month. The NICU still has quite a bit of clothing from past graduates, as well as the nurses finding it on clearance, so I think with this gift they will be set. They have asked us to focus on the stranded family bags. For those we will need lots of non perishable items:

• Chef Boyardee pasta cups
• Vienna Sausage
• Spam
• Bottled Water
• Cracker packs
• Individually wrapped candies
• Individually wrapped cookies
• Tooth Paste
• Travel size Qtips
• Travel Laundry Soap
• Starbucks Via Coffee packets
• Or you could give cash via the paypal button at the side of this blog, or in person.

The other area we want to focus on is our gifts to the older keiki in the hospital. We are in need of a variety of party plates, cake size, in different characters for all ages of Keiki. Small puzzle books, or new toys they could play with in their bed. The simple travel type games, or cheep dolls (Barbie, Princess, Polly Pockets or baby style dolls) We could also use small finger nail polish, single use makeup samples or any other beauty product that would help a teen undergoing Chemo feel pretty.

John delivered an awesome message on compassion, click here to listen to his message.

I can't wait to share the fun of collecting with all of you.  I know you all have the ability to amaze not only me but the hospital ladies as well. I can't wait!

February is Comming!

For the past 2 years we have made our BIG drop off to the hospital in February. This year as a Church and program we are dedicating February as Danya's Gift Month!  We'll be having a special Dedication service on February 5th! If you live on O'ahu please consider joining us. We're looking for connections. Anyone with a business connection that might be able to help us get any of these items please contact me! I'd love for this to be our biggest drop off yet!

 

The Stranded family bags are still the #1 need in the Hospital, there are soo many families brought over to us from the outerislands and need these bags in a bad way. Specific things we need for the stranded family bags:

>Small packaged foods like Vienna sausages, sardines, peanut butter and crackers, etc.
>Granola or "power" bars
>Hard candies
>Small servings of canned fruit or pudding
>Plastic zip lock bag
>Napkin and spoon
>Spam
>travel sized toothbrush and toothpaste
>soup with pull tab lid (or for the hospital the kind in the microwavable cup)
>Bottled Water
>Travel Sized qtips
>Mens individually wrapped Razors
>floss
>Starbucks Via Coffee packets

Preemie and Newborn clothing is how we started with Danya's gift and it's still an area of need. Any preemie and Newborn clothing items, hats, and socks.

PARTY SUPPLIES!
Any birthday party items. small unopened plates, napkins, cups, and party favors. Small bed safe toys and puzzle books.

Can you help us?  We'd love for those of you readers who have connections to ask people and pass on our needs to others too. Let's make this February the best it's ever been.

Barbie NICU

It's been a while since I posted what we've been up to. Never fear we haven't given up on the NICU families. The Stranded family bags continue to be an amazing moment of peace for the families that are transported in a hurry. As some of you know I  have started working closely with the March of Dimes NICU family support attending and helping with different events that they do. One of the things that always concerns the staff and families is how the siblings of the babies don't really understand what is happening with their baby. So pooling a bunch of Danya's Barbie toys, I was able to create a Barbie NICU where the siblings can interact with the "babies" and to open discussion between parents and the kids.

This desk and table was part of a vintage Barbie vet clinic. I changed out the cork board to something more NICU including some graduate photos.

Using some ziplock disposable containers I was able to cut out holes and make some isolettes.

There are also a couple of transition babies in cribs getting ready to head home. ;)

Or some cuties under warmers from the Barbie Baby doctor set.

I found the baby scale on ebay and instantly needed to have it.

As you can see it was a big hit at the Baby shower. The kids took it apart and played with it for quite a while. I was fun seeing them really excited about what their baby is doing.

In Desperate need

We are going to release this article to the media to try and garner some more attention to our projects because the need is great. Those of you who give faithfully have been such a blessing. I  just recieved word today that the hospital is down to 3 stranded family bags and none of them are girl themed. I am praying that we can get the word out this weekend and that people will choose to participate as we impact the lives of families in crisis.

'MOMS Club of Waipahu, Aiea, and Pearl City has a long history of giving back to their community. We are always seeking different ways to give back to our community. One of our Members began a project called Danya’s Gift in remembrance of the time her daughter spent in the NICU, or Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at birth. Through that project we have an excellent relationship with the NICU at Kapi’olani Medical Center. In a cooperative effort we came up with a new idea. The Hawaiian Islands appear close on a map; but the only way to travel between islands is by plane. When a pregnancy is in danger, or a baby is born too early or with a birth defect, the emergency transport team at Oahu's Kapi`olani Medical Center for Women & Children is called into action. Parents feel terrified and alone at the prospect of sending their newborn baby on an emergency transport plane. If space if available, one family member is allowed to fly with the baby. When a mother has just given birth, it is not safe for her to fly. This leaves the dads to travel alone. Focused on the lives of their wife--who must be left behind, and their baby--whose life hangs in the balance; these dads will often go many hours with no food or rest. The Transported Family Bags fulfill a need---they provide these dads, who are learning to be a father under extraordinary circumstances, a little bit of comfort during that terrible first 24 hours. Rather than a throwaway bag we sewed little lunch sized totes to give the families some hope that someday their child will be able to use the adorable little bag, and then we fill the bag with the basics of survival for that first day. The bags contain things like water, instant coffee, soup, spam, toothbrush and paste, lotion, hard candies, laundry soap, shampoo and many more items. Each bag costs approximately $20 to make and fill, but the affects are priceless.
Since we dropped off the bags the March of Dimes NICU family support specialist reports that they have used nearly all of the bags that we were able to put together and they have a great need for more. Danya’s Gift has been working with the Hospital and MOMS Club to coordinate this project. For more information or to help us put more bags together please contact us. All donations are Tax Deductable, and every donation no matter the size helps, Please consider helping us to meet the needs of these families in crisis. Thank you for your interest in our projects."

Come to our Egg Hunt

O'ahu families, please think about joining us for our 3rd annual Easter Egg Hunt. It's at the perfect time to wait for Easter Dinner with a bit of an egg hunt. We are hopeing that some of our guests will think about donating to Danya's Gift as well. We just got word from the hospital that they are using the stranded family bags very fast. I've started making more bags but we need to fill them. They are an amazing way that we give special care to the families here on O'ahu. 

Things we need:

Small packaged foods like Vienna sausages, sardines, peanut butter and crackers, etc.

Granola or "power" bars

Clean socks

Hand lotion

Hard candies

Small servings of canned fruit or pudding

Plastic zip lock bag

Dry washcloth

Small soap

Napkin and spoon

Spam

travel sized toothbrush and toothpaste

soup with pull tab lid (or for the hospital the kind in the microwavable cup)

Bottled Water

Please consider giving to Danya's Gift this Easter season.