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Friday, February 14, 2014
STAFF WRITER
More than 1,000 families who delivered sick babies sometime during the last six years also experienced a heartwarming gesture that made their world a little brighter during that otherwise difficult time. This is thanks to the women of the GFWC Newington/ Wethersfield Woman’s Club, who in 2006 embarked on a mission to stitch blankets for babies in the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Making progress in the years since their very first blanket delivery, they surpassed their milestone goal of 1,000 blankets by two just last month. “It’s an incredible feeling — Volume 53, No. 57
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we are just so in awe of the wonderful things that happen in the unit; the people are so special and it’s an honor to be a part of,” said Edyie Steimer, the club member who started it all. Struggling with breathing difficulties, heart defects, prematurity and other birth complications, the babies there are often not expected to live more than a few days. Having a special blanket to swaddle them in or keep bedside can be a tremendous comfort to scared and overwhelmed parents, according to Milena Frazer, a registered nurse who has helped facilitate the program since its beginning. “The families are usually shocked and upset, stunned by having to come there, so Edyie’s blankets offer something that just reminds them that this is their baby ... it’s going to be okay,” Frazer said around this time last year, when the club
See BABY, Page 6
Erica Schmitt | Staff
Fourth-graders pose for a picture with the singers before heading back to class.
Opera-tune-ity knocks, children answer By ERICA SCHMITT STAFF WRITER
Four young opera singers from the University of Connecticut performed for students at Elizabeth Green Elementary School Tuesday, sparking their curiosity and inciting lots of questions. “How did you learn so fast?” one
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student asked the group. “You have to take lots and lots of lessons,” answered one of the graduate students in the “Operatune-ities” opera outreach team. They sang in Italian, French and German, explaining the story behind the lyrics of each piece and finally ending with a few in
English. When another student asked if they sing anything in Portuguese, he learned about how the performers take both vocal and language courses in school; that way they can sing in lots of different languages. Before the assembly was over, See OPERA-TUNE-ITIES, Page 7
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