Books soothe families of NICU babies

By ANGELA CAVE- | Comments: 0 | Leave a comment

Matthew Roohan, a sixth-grader at Holy Spirit School in East Greenbush, spent Thanksgiving dinner canvassing his family's guests for donations: His religion class was collecting books and funds for a special project.

Matthew submitted $95 - including $25 from his dog-watching savings - and six books. His classmate, Mikayla Lahr, turned over a bookstore gift card she had received as a present.

The two students had similar motives: "I just wanted to help out a lot," Mikayla said, explaining how it had affected her to hear a Glens Falls mother present her non-profit, Project: Cameron's Story, to the class in November.

Cameron Quartiers was born 16 weeks premature in 2009 and spent 213 days in neonatal and pediatric intensive care units. His mother discovered that reading children's books and telling stories helped her bond with her son, whom she couldn't hold for several weeks.

"She didn't really know what to do," Mikayla recalled. When the class watched a video about Cameron, "I was sort of sad and sort of scared for him when he was going through it."

Cameron died at eight months old. Project: Cameron's Story distributes books to parents of premature babies in the NICUs at Albany Medical Center, St. Peter's Hospital in Albany and Crouse Hospital in Syracuse. It has delivered more than 2,300 books and raised $20,000 for the March of Dimes.

Lindsay Giabanis, the sixth-grade religion teacher at Holy Spirit, was a recipient of one of those books when her son, Cooper, was born with a liver condition and spent time in a NICU in 2011.

"It was very touching," Mrs. Giabanis said. "It was just such a kind gesture."

Cooper's hospitalization was "very overwhelming," she said; but, "in the chaos of everything, there's this book - a nice way to interact with him."

Mrs. Giabanis got involved with the organization and appeared in its "bookraiser" video. Her class was excited to participate after hearing from the non-profit's founder.

"I thought she was amazing to be able to talk about it," Matthew said. "I tried to collect as much books and money as I could. I thought how hard it must have been to be in the NICU for so long and to be sitting there for hours. So, I thought maybe our class could make a difference and I could show how much I care."

The class, Mikayla told The Evangelist, made posters and a bookworm-shaped progress thermometer. The group amassed 311 books and raised $260 to buy Cameron's "favorites" - and their efforts won't stop there, if Matthew has anything to say about it.

"If we all work together, we can get a lot more," he said, outlining his goal of personally raising another $50 over Christmas break and perhaps installing a permanent collection bin in the school's main office. "We think that we should give back to the community. As a Catholic, you should help others out and follow your faith."

The collection officially runs through February, but Mrs. Giabanis intends to make the project a tradition in her classes. She said it shows her students "we need to be aware of how fortunate we are to be healthy. It shows us that we can do something to show our gratitude.

"For me, it's been very fulfilling," she continued. "Just kind of everything coming full circle."[[In-content Ad]]