CHANDLER, AZ — A group of Chandler junior high girls plan to stay busy this summer with hobbies passed down from their mothers.
The last day of 7th grade for Karis, Isha and Diya means it’s the first day of their summer job.
“You basically go through, then you go through the next stitch,” said Isha while threading yarn around her finger.
At 12 years old, each one of these girls learned the patient weaving and steady hands needed to crochet.
The trio makes hats, headbands and blankets for the tiniest humans in our Valley community.
They call their growing club – Knots for NICU.
“Sometimes it can be relaxing, sometimes it can be hard,” said Karis.
More than 100 crochet items were donated to Banner Desert Hospital, just hours after their last day of school.
“It’s almost astonishing knowing you can make a difference in someone’s life with something as simple as a NICU hat,” said Karis.
The girls admit, learning to crochet was complicated, but it’s nowhere near the number of complications their mothers faced when they brought their children into this world.
“Getting a phone call from Banner Desert was always so scary," said Sunayna Goel.
Goel and Stacey Wales both had twins at Banner Desert, born weeks earlier than anticipated.
Wales said she was given a binder about all the things that could go wrong during her pregnancy knowing her twins would be born early. She said just one more day in the womb could take a chunk out of the binder.
Still, each mother says having a baby in the NICU is a helpless feeling where all you can do is hope for the best.
Karis, Isha and Diya thought they met in middle school, but being born just three days apart from one another, their first encounter was unknowingly in the NICU.
At a time of constant worry, Goel and Wales found a simple peace when their babies were given clothes that fit.
”It felt like the first normal thing that went on in that pregnancy. And in that birth. And it brought just normalcy that these kids can have a normal life. That they can have a chance,” said Wales.
The clothes these twins once wore, can fit on their hands today. Those hands will be busy this summer crocheting hats of hope.
“Clothing is a way to get to them, like ‘hey we care about you. You’re not alone, we’re here to support you,” said Isha and Diya.