Warm gifts from the heart

Lolita Harper

SANTA ANA -- Drug babies who are suffering through withdrawals in the

first weeks of their lives will especially find comfort in the donations

of 10 Costa Mesa High School students.

Tiny newborn addicts shake violently while trying to cleanse their

bodies of impurities, and one of the only comforts available to them is a

nice, tightly wrapped warm blanket, said Kathy McCarrell, director of

Orange County Child Abuse Prevention Center.

“Your gifts will be perfect for that,” McCarrell told the class of

aspiring fashion designers.

The high school students, who are jointly enrolled at Orange Coast

College for this particular fashion class, made dozens of blankets and

donated them Wednesday to the Welcome Baby Program at the child abuse

prevention center.

Kim Truong, 16, said she made one of her quilts out of a silky fabric

so it would be soothing to the baby. The cool, smooth, off-white patches

provided a tactile contrast to the adjacent squares of warm, soft pale

green material.

“I chose silk because it will feel really good for the baby to lay

on,” Kim said.

A mountain of blankets and quilts covered an entire table at the

group’s center in Santa Ana -- each one different from the other. Some

were large, others small. Some were made of fleece, others of denim.

Andrew Hendricks, the only boy in the class, made one of his quilts

from Anaheim Angels fabric. Megan Plowman, 16, fashioned her patchwork of

a dark denim and trimmed it with a satiny black ribbon.

As individual as each quilt was, every one was made from the heart,

students said.

“I am just so glad that something that I love doing can help other

people too,” Megan said.

The Welcome Baby Program is designed to help first-time mothers and

their infants 6 months or younger. Many of the young mothers have come

from abusive or drug-infested backgrounds, and the program works to teach

the new moms nurturing parenting practices.

McCarrell said the program tries to intervene early in the parenting

process to teach mothers and fathers there is a different way to bring up

children than perhaps what they were exposed to as children. Program

workers will deliver the blankets directly to the homes of participating

families, she said.

“These blankets are soft and comfortable, so the babies will feel

cared about,” McCarrell said. “When you think of what good you did with

this project, think of the baby who will be wrapped up in them.”