Debbie Sandidge has loved to crochet since her mom taught her years ago – and the chance to put her hobby to work for a good cause is the best of both worlds!
Debbie collaborates with her niece and a longtime family friend, who are both nurses in Regional One Health’s NICU, to crochet adorable costumes to help our tiniest patients celebrate Halloween, Christmas and more.
It’s a chance to celebrate the babies’ milestones and give families precious memories and keepsakes to take home with them from the NICU.
The first year of a baby’s life is full of milestones – but for NICU families, special moments risk getting lost during hospital stays that can last for weeks or even months.
Using crochet hooks, yarn, and a heart full of love, Debbie Sandidge helps families at Regional One Health’s Sheldon B. Korones Newborn Center cherish those precious memories.
Working with her niece, NICU nurse Morgan Embrey, and family friend Heather Burgess, NICU Assistant Nurse Manager, Debbie crochets costumes to help our tiniest patients celebrate their first Halloween, Christmas, Easter, etc. in style. Nurses dress the babies and set up photo shoots complete with props and backgrounds, and families get the outfits and photos as keepsakes.
“It means a lot to the families,” Morgan said. “It gives them a little sense of normalcy while they’re in the NICU, and they’re always so thankful and appreciative when we do it.”
Morgan and Heather got the idea after seeing photos of Debbie’s crochet works-of-art on social media. “Aunt Debbie lived close by growing up. She was always an artsy-crafty person, and that’s what we’d do when I went over there to spend the night,” Morgan said. “When we saw her photos on Facebook, we sent her a message.”
“Morgan told me they wanted to do something special for parents, and it took off from there,” Debbie said. “For her to call or send me a message and say, ‘I have a project for you’… I drop everything! I love that she trusts me with this, and the connection has been truly special. We’ve always been close, but this has just been magical.”
Debbie’s mom taught her to crochet years ago, and it’s been her favorite hobby ever since. When she first found a way to use her gift for a good cause, it was the best of both worlds.
Debbie and her husband had moved from Memphis to Illinois, and she wanted to get involved in the community by helping others. “I talked to a woman at my church, and she told me she’d lost a child in the NICU. While they were there, she said there weren’t enough tiny hats and blankets for the babies,” Debbie said. “It really struck me. When she poured her heart out, I thought, ‘This is a chance to help someone.’”
Debbie Sandidge puts her gift for crochet to work to make and donate costumes for babies in Regional One Health’s NICU. She has also made tiny blankets and hats for hospitalized babies and children, as well as hats for children undergoing chemotherapy for cancer.
Debbie grabbed her hooks and yarn and made a tiny hat and blanket. She hasn’t stopped since.
Along with her work for NICUs, she has crocheted blankets for children’s hospitals and hats for kids undergoing treatment for cancer. She remembers how one little girl was embarrassed to go to school when she lost her hair…until Debbie made her an Elsa hat with flowing blond tresses.
When Debbie and her husband retired and moved to Arkansas, she was thrilled to get more time to help young patients.
For Regional One Health alone, she has donated hundreds of costumes in the past five years, creating everything from elf outfits for a visit from Santa to jeweled jumpsuits for Elvis Week to frogs for a celebration for the hospital’s rising score in the Leapfrog health care grading system.
“All we have to do is ask!” Morgan said. “We just send her a message, and she’s down for it!”
Debbie usually finds a basic pattern and adjusts it to her specific needs. Each outfit includes a hat plus a diaper cover, pants or a skirt. Sometimes, she needs to do some research or enlist her husband’s eye for detail to get it exactly right.
“When we did zoo animals, I thought back about going to the Memphis Zoo when I was a child. We did Doc McStuffins, and I had no idea who that was! I had to do a little research to figure it out,” she laughed. “My husband has a keen eye for animals, and we’ll go back and forth to make sure the eyes and ears and all the little details look right. We have a lot of fun!”
A basic hat takes her about 20 minutes, but adding details to the more complex ones, like a lion with a mane and whiskers or frogs with googly eyes, can take a couple hours.
Once the costumes are done, Debbie sanitizes them and puts them in individual packages labeled with sizes. Then, her logistical team – also known as her husband – ships them to Morgan.
In the past five years, Debbie has crocheted literally hundreds of costumes for our NICU. She has made superheroes and animals for Halloween, elf hats for a visit with Santa, and even jeweled jumpsuits for Elvis Week.
The labor of love takes its fair share of supplies, and Debbie is grateful for generous friends who chip in to help. “I watch for sales and red tags, and I do have people that help me. I can come home and find boxes of yarn on the doorstep, or I might get an anonymous gift card in the mail,” she said. “It’s overwhelming! I would never ask for that, and it’s amazing how it happens.”
Debbie is grateful to have the time to support a cause and a nursing team that is near and dear to her heart. “Morgan and Heather mean a lot to me. I’m proud of them – they go through a lot to get that degree and do the job they do, and I want to give them a quality product to help their patients,” she said. “Being retired, I’m lucky to have the time, and I love to do it.”
“I never get worn out over it! I really believe this is God’s pathway for me. It truly is a ministry.”
It is one that helps our NICU nurses provide the best care for families during a challenging time. “We love taking care of these babies – that’s our passion,” Morgan said. “This helps bring us closer to the families. When we can help them bond with their babies, it’s something we love to do for these parents.”