Little Eva Sanchez, dressed in her rainbow T-shirt, clutched a fuzzy Winnie The Pooh blanket with care.
“It feels comfy,” the 3-year-old said. “(I like to) give to little babies.”
The child joined her mother, Lynette Sanchez, at the pediatric wing of Florida Hospital in Tampa to hand out nearly 40 blankets to patients. The blankets were donated by students from Oakstead Elementary.
Lynette's sister, Jennifer Sanchez, asked the kids in her classroom to consider donating to children stuck in the hospital.
The generous display warmed the heart of the ICU nurse.
“Pick-me-ups are important,” said Lynette. “Sometimes you have kids who, they don't have a parent here for whatever reason and you bring in a nice warm blanket to them and they see a design on it and they get excited for it.”
Hospital staff hauled the blankets around in a wagon and passed them out to children as young as infants.
“These blankets are the best comfort blankets you could ever have,” said Sara Frawley, who has been with Florida Hospital Tampa for two years. “We like to bring color into the rooms.”
Two Oakstead classrooms made donations. Sanchez's first-graders and another fifth-grade class both donated store-bought and handmade blankets.
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