From Incubator to a Donation box

Two incubators from the Wellington Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) had recently come to the end of service. Hearing of this, the idea was hatched to produce unique donation boxes to raise funds for supporting families on a neonatal journey. In addition, their size and very visual nature will help to raise awareness of the incidence of prematurity and also the number of full-term babies who experience health issues and/or complications at birth.

A visit to Bryan Stinson at Graley Plastics in Petone – located between the Wellington NICU and Lower Hutt Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) – was met with a favourable response to the request for help. Bryan said they’d be happy to help, stating “We’re happy to donate our skills and expertise to help this great charity with their project”. Bryan then added, “we’ve been set many interesting challenges over the years and this is certainly one of the more unique pieces we’ve done”.

Arlo Baylis was tasked with the conversion, and was an absolute pleasure to deal with. The enhancements included:
•   Cutting a hole in the top of the incubators for money to go through
•   Securing the incubators, as they have doors in the sides of the incubator (used for Doctors, nurses and parents to have access to the baby inside)
•   Creating and then securing a panel that hangs from the ceiling of the incubator. This panel is made from blue Perspex and also has holes cut in it to allow items to hang from it – to add visual appeal and also items to raise awareness.

Above you will see the team at Graley Plastics great community support highlighted in the Hutt News

As tends to happen with the prevalence of neonatal journeys (5,000+ per year in New Zealand), Bryan Stinson was aware of someone who had a child in a neonatal unit. Just last year he knew of someone who had a baby spend 3 months in the Wellington NICU.

CAN YOU HELP?
We have some ideas for placement opportunities for the incubator donation boxes – keep an eye on The Little Miracles Trust updates on Facebook and Twitter to learn more. We’re targeting events with large visitor numbers, so if you have any ideas we’d love to hear suggestions at info@littlemiraclestrust.org.nz

A BIG THANKS
Our sincere thanks go to Bryan, Arlo and the entire team at Graley Plastics for your support of The Little Miracles Trust.
It is greatly appreciated and will help us to continue to support parents going through the stress and anxiety of a neonatal journey.
We couldn’t provide our support without examples such as this great company giving back to the community. Thanks Graley Plastics!