Seeking Baby Blanket and/or Baby Bennie Donations

[Tammy]

NILMDTS
Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep

"You make a living by what you get, but you make a life by what you give." - Anonymous
Non-Profit Organization Seeking Baby Blanket and/or Baby Bennie Donations


Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep (NILMDTS) is a non-profit 501(c) 3 organization made up of Professional Photographers world wide who volunteer their time and services to provide bereavement photography to parents who have experienced a loss of an infant due to illness, miscarriage, (as early as 25 weeks) still birth or other complication during pregnancy and/or labor. We provide parents with a printable CD file of beautiful black and white professional portraits of their baby and a DVD presentation of all images set to a meaningful melody.

There are never any fees charged to the parents for these services.

Our mission is to assist families through their grief, and provide them with heirloom images to reflect back on and remember the spirit of their precious baby for weeks, months and years to come. Please visit our web site at www.nowilaymedowntosleep.org to learn more about our organization and the services we provide to these special families. Once you visit our site, you will have a better understanding of why our services are so valuable to our communities, and how we are able to help families through the most traumatic and heartbreaking time of their lives.

We are currently seeking donations of baby blankets and/or bennie hats for our organization. Our NILMDTS logo would be embroidered on these items and will be sent with our photographers who are called to the hospital or hospice location for a photo session with the infant and his/her family. Many times parents are not prepared for the unexpected early delivery of their baby; therefore they bring nothing with them to the hospital. If together we could provide a small token such as a baby blanket and/or Bennie cap for their baby, it would be a very precious gift to these families. The parents will be given these items as a keepsake in remembrance of their special infant. We will be certain to acknowledge your contribution of these much-needed items on our national website, unless you choose to remain an anonymous contributor.

If you are interested in donating baby blankets and/or bennie hats, please send and email to tammy@nilmdts.org to express your interest or to receive additional information. Any donation you could provide would be greatly appreciated and are considered a tax deductible contibution. We offer "in-kind donation" receipts for this purpose. These may be aquired by sending a copy of your material expenses to:

NILMDTS Foundation
Attn: Heather Tipton
7800 S. Elati St. #111
Littleton, CO 80120

or emailing to heather@nilmdts.org

Again, we would like to invite you to visit our website and to please consider becoming a valuable part of our meaningful organization.

Thank you for your time and consideration, we look forward to hearing from you to answer any questions.

Sincerely,

NILMDTS Foundation

www.nowilaymedowntosleep.org
www.nilmdts.org
www.nowisleep.com

[Tammy]

If anyone has ideas of companies who may be interested in donating these items, please send me an email with the companies contact information. I will send a copy of this letter to them directly. I am also in the process of locating corporate company contacts such as Osh Gosh, Babies R Us, Children's Palace, JcPenney etc., any assistance or ideas are greatly appreciated. Thanks much!

[Jen Eagan]

I've never heard of Bennie hats. Are they just the tiny little caps for preemies?

[Tammy]

~Jen~ yes. Our local hospital has a group of volunteers who hand crochet these for the OB department. However, I know there is ALWAYS a need for them.

[Scott Hays]

Wonderful letter. Glad to know both you wordsmiths. I've told you both how incredible you are before. Pursue it will ya?

[Jessi Hill]

I know that Lands End often donates blankets to organizations. I know some of them have names already on them, so they may not be what you are looking for.... but some have had only small imperfections and could easily be covered with a logo. Just an idea.... :) THEY ARE VERY NICE SOFT BABY BLANKETS!!!! I could also check with some people I know about making them... if there is a way you could get iron/or sew on patches for us to attach to them ourselves. We could probably get some folks to donate crochette blankets or the polar fleece stuff that is so in (around here anyway).

[Tammy]

Thank you for the information Jessi~ In talking with Cheryl, I believe she has someone willing to do the embroidering on the hats and blankets. I'm not 100% sure about getting items that have names on them already...

Cheryl, maybe you could answer this better than I can.

Does Lands End have an email address where I could contact them? I'm guessing any blanket that could be embroidered with the NILMDTS logo would work, but need to ask the "boss" for sure.:D (ahummm...Cheryl??)

Thanks again Jessi, any and all suggestions and ideas are very appreciated. :)

Oh yeah, one more thing... does anyone have ideas on how to get past the "red tape" in contacting corporate companies?? Example: Did a search for Osh Gosh Baby, corporate office. I was taken to a link that had info like ordering, tracking orders, customer service desk, etc. No information for a direct E-mail address....(only to email complaints and such) Should I just snail-mail these companies, or is there another option I have not discovered yet?

[Jessi Hill]

If you go to landsend.com there is an email for comments and questions... I guess I wouls start there... they also have several phone #'s and snail mail addys! Good luck! Like I said... just an idea!

[Kirk Kief]

One thing that you want to do, with the blankets, is to try and steer them away from White blankets. A cream color, or light tan is good. White will lose it's texture in the images too easily.

[Jessi Hill]

I think for baby blankets Lands End only has the baby pink and blues. But if you go through another place they probably have more neutral tones.

[Kirk Kief]

The pink and blue should be fine. Unless it's a dark blue, but, I've got a hunch it's more of a pastel blue.

[Jessi Hill]

Yes they are pastel baby colors.... and super soft!!! They are very high quality!