DIANE MAKAR MURPHY Newborns in Need has its own need for volunteers

Asthma often put Casey Shaffer in the hospital, beginning when she was 6 years old. What's worse, it left her there for long, lonely days and nights that sometimes stretched into months. By sixth grade, she was missing so much school she was assigned a tutor for home instruction.
"I knew then that I wanted to do something for children," said Shaffer, now 28 (and still sometimes disabled by asthma).
She has, in fact, found several things, including a project called Newborns in Need. Shaffer is trying to begin a chapter of the national, Christian-based nonprofit group that donates clothing and blankets to needy newborns.
Shaffer, whose round, bespectacled face is youthful and open, has a certification in child care from Choffin Career Center. She spends part of her days watching her niece and nephew for her sister. Other parts of her days are spent in simple volunteer efforts aimed at removing some of that loneliness she once suffered.
'Make a Child Smile'
"I found Make a Child Smile a couple of years ago," Shaffer said of her first Internet find. "They feature three seriously ill children each month. Each child has a P.O. box, and you can send cards or a small present." She found the group online at makeachildsmile.org and has been participating ever since.
"They've had over 300 kids, and I've probably sent at least one thing to each of them," Shaffer said. "My niece is 8, and she helps me. She draws pictures that I include in my letter."
One little girl featured on the Web site, Shaffer said, spent 100 days in the hospital. "We sent her 100 small things," she said, to include such gifts as a puzzle, book and homemade art kit. "They actually sent a card back thanking us."
When she found that Make a Child Smile had a spin off called Love Quilts, which solicited quilt squares from volunteers, she went back online. "That led me to want to do something more hands-on, but I don't sew as much as I crochet," Shaffer said. She found Newborns in Need.
"It responds to the needs of newborns or premature babies. They provide layettes, blankets and even an outfit for a baby that dies," she said. The national organization has as its goal to "take care of sick and needy babies and their families; and in cases of crisis, to help where help is needed ... to empower others to assist in this critical need."
"I saw it was a good cause, and at the time [February] there wasn't a chapter in Ohio -- two have been added since," she said. "I thought, I could do this."
Work has begun
And she has begun to. In addition to having three crocheted, newborn-size blankets to show, Shaffer has found two other volunteers toward forming the five-person board required to begin a chapter in Youngstown. Once she has a president, vice president, secretary, treasurer and work meeting coordinator, the national group will set up a bank account, send information on fund-raisers and "may send material [cloth] to use for sewing projects," Shaffer said.
She has a place arranged to meet for work meetings, during which volunteers will craft their donations, and some ideas for distributing donations locally via hospitals and shelters. "I would like to see every baby go home with what they need," she said.
"I knew girls in high school who got pregnant and couldn't afford anything," Shaffer said. "Some people may have their premature baby die and have nothing to bury the baby in. Newborns in Need will help."
According to Shaffer, "I would like to serve all of Mahoning County. I think eventually, individuals in need will come to us. Hospitals will contact us. Maybe churches will also get involved."
Already, Shaffer's neighbors, two twin teenage girls, have enthusiastically offered to get involved. "They were preemies," she said, "so that's really wonderful."
If you would like to help Shaffer bring Newborns in Need to Youngstown, you can contact her at (330) 781-0428.
murphy@vindy.com