Sisters Use Grant To Return Kindness To Hopkins NICU

Rebecca Wilsman and her daughters, Anna and Grace Chisholm, recently visited the Johns Hopkins Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) bearing gifts — blankets for babies and toiletry kits for moms.

Anna and Grace, both students at St. John the Evangelist School in Severna Park, received Kid Kindness Grants and were excited to bring some happiness to the moms and babies. But the projects also had a special, personal significance for the family. The gifts were given in love and as an act of gratitude.

Grace, now a second grader, was born on October 7, 2018, weighing 1 pound, 4 ounces. Considered a micropreemie, she was lovingly cared for in the hospital’s NICU for more than four months and received many special, often handmade blankets.

“I was rich in blankets!” Grace said with a huge smile.

When Wilsman recently saw the announcement about the Kid Kindness Grant program, she was excited. She talked with the girls about project ideas, and they were all in. They worked together to complete the applications, and both girls were awarded grants. Grace made blankets for babies, and Anna assembled toiletry bags.

It quickly became a family project. Grace said she and her mother worked together on the blankets. “We bought different patterns for them, and they were different colors, like ‘tealish’ green, magenta and pink. My mom helped me tie them together. Some had designs, like hearts.

“I made the blankets for the babies because when they’re born, they might be chilly and maybe their moms forgot them. This way, they wouldn’t have to leave their baby there and rush back home. Some people have a long way to go to the hospital,” Grace said.

Anna, now in fifth grade, remembers when Grace was born and in the NICU. When she and her dad, Adam Chisholm, would visit, the nurses were kind to her and gave her stickers, books and little toys.

“They always had something special waiting for her — big-sister gifts,” Wilsman said.

“I felt really good that I got accepted for the grant because I knew the moms would like the kits I made,” said Anna, who made 20 toiletry kits. “I wanted to make the moms feel special and let them know that I was thinking about them. I put things in them that I thought they would really appreciate, like toothbrushes, toothpaste, lip balm and little notebooks.”

She decorated the kits with kindness stickers. “They said things like, ‘You can do this!’ or ‘You’ve got this!’” Anna said.

Lead Clinical Nurse Christy Richter, who was Grace’s primary nurse during her NICU stay, has stayed in touch with the family and coordinated the delivery of the gifts. Richter was thrilled to see the family and Wilsman said it was a special time for them all.

“I hugged her,” Grace said of Richter.

Grace even brought back the “Amazing Grace” blanket that Wendi Poole, a NICU nurse clinician, made especially for her during her stay.

“I was this tiny,” Grace said, holding her hands several inches apart.

“What Grace and Anna and the entire Chisholm family have given back is immeasurable,” Richter said. “As we deliver the gifted comfort items, with the Chisholm family’s permission, we make sure to share that these items are a gift from one of the families that was sitting in a room just like they are now and share their message of strength and possibility for their sick babies. I like to think the smiles the families share during this gifting show that they feel seen and supported.”

Anna and Grace are already brainstorming other ways to show kindness to people around them.

Kid Kindness Grants are available to children in grades K-12 through Kindness Grows Here, a charitable organization based in Annapolis that encourages children to use acts of kindness to make positive impacts in their communities.

The deadline for grant applications is November 1. For more information, visit www.kindnessgrowshere.com.