A Hampton Roads Academy senior is getting an early start on her career aspirations.
Eryn Gaffney used her senior project to give 127 handmade blankets to the Riverside Regional Medical Center’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
Gaffney will graduate later this year and plans on attending the University of Virginia in the fall and major in nursing.
“I’m thankful and grateful to be able to give newborn babies their first blankets,” Gaffney said.
The Hampton Roads Academy senior has volunteered at Riverside Regional Medical Center for the last two summers doing various odd jobs like cleaning equipment and making name tags for newborn babies.
After more than 60 hours of volunteering, Gaffney said she noticed the blankets for newborn babies were thin.
Gaffney enlisted the help of her mother, school faculty and church members to collect fabric to make blankets.
Gaffney said she didn’t know how to sew when she first began but thanks to the help of her mom and a 40-year-old sewing machine, she was able to get her senior project off the ground and running.
Her initial goal was to make 100 blankets but she surpassed that mark and delivered the blankets to the Riverside Regional Medical Center’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in March.
The blankets are used for swaddling, but are also used as keepsakes for the parents of a baby that does not survive, according to a news release from Hampton Roads Academy.
The blankets take about 45 minutes each to make, Gaffney said.
Riverside Medical Center staff and families have been appreciative of Gaffney’s time and efforts.
“Riverside and our communities are fortunate to have volunteers like Eryn – people who see need where it exists, then waste no time creating solutions,” said Riverside Foundation annual giving officer Julia Bowditch, in the news release. “She has been an incredible addition to our Riverside family and exemplifies our mission; to care for others as we would care for those we love.”
Gaffney said she hopes by her senior year at UVA that she will be working in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and finishing her undergraduate nursing degree.
