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Lena and Jeff Levendoski were unaware of the need for clothing for newborns. After all, their nursery was complete with drawers full of precious monogramed onsies and soft organic cotton swaddles and blankets edged in pale blue satin. They were so excited to bring their baby boy home from the hospital, and they were prepared to welcome and celebrate his safe delivery. They had been planning his arrival for months!
Two weeks before he was due, in July 2007, they happily headed to the hospital to hear his heartbeat in utero, one of the last times before he was delivered. But his heart was still. Not beating. And they slowly realized their son Strick, named for Lena’s beloved late grandfather Strick Strickland, was not coming home. Instead, they planned his burial.
Grieving. Devastated. Bereft. The couple was given no explanation as to why their first child had died.
“Things happen,” Lena said, understanding life does not always go your way.
As the couple began to heal, Lena remembers driving over Monteagle Mountain. She and her husband had been thinking of a way to honor their son’s memory. Attuned, to the fact that a healthy birth is not a given, they both believe that all children who are born should be celebrated because it is absolutely a miracle that these beautiful children arrive safely. She got the idea for the foundation before they started up the mountain, and by the time they reached the bottom, “Strick’s Gift” was complete.
Strick’s Gift is a gift of clothing and blankets to celebrate and welcome newborns in need. Typically, there are 20 to 30 pieces of clothing, a blanket and maybe a few other items collected and packed in a cute canvas tote. Half of the clothes are gently used, donated by the community, and the other half are new, purchased with grants awarded or monetary donations.
At first glance this may sound like simply a lovely gesture. After all, don’t most newborns receive all manner of precious baby things?
The truth is that they all do not. Almost half of them.
“When we began, we did not know the extent of the need until we approached the hospitals with this idea in 2008. It turns out, there is a staggering need for clothing for newborns,” Lena said.
Strick’s Gift serves four hospitals in Nashville and Erlanger in Chattanooga. This is a gift and cannot be mistaken as a handout. The adorable canvas bags, filled with sweet baby things that are lovingly wrapped in pastel tissue paper, are stamped with a logo and serve as a beautiful welcome gesture. And these gifts are appreciated.
“I met a new dad in a parking garage once outside of a hospital in Nashville. Admittedly, I was wary of this man approaching me in a semi-dark parking garage. However, it turned out he was a new dad, and he and his wife had just received a Strick’s Gift bag. He said that he’d recently lost his job, the baby came sooner than they expected, and they weren’t prepared. He said that as his wife went through the bag of clothing, she cried at every piece. It was a wonderful encounter that I will never forget,” Lena said.
The couple began this organization when they were barely a year into their profound grief. Explaining their plan made them relive their loss all over again. And again.
“We found ourselves talking about what happened a lot. I guess ultimately that was helpful but emotionally draining for sure,” Lena said.
But their effort to help others was a way to heal.
“Grief requires a tremendous amount of energy. What I have learned is that giving, community service, and helping in any form can replenish the energy of the broken hearted, the lonely, the grieving the depressed - you name it. Serving others is a powerful anecdote,” Lena said.
The card attached to the bags the child receives reads, “Welcome to the World, From one Angel to Another.”
What a lovely way to begin.
by Ferris Robinson
Two weeks before he was due, in July 2007, they happily headed to the hospital to hear his heartbeat in utero, one of the last times before he was delivered. But his heart was still. Not beating. And they slowly realized their son Strick, named for Lena’s beloved late grandfather Strick Strickland, was not coming home. Instead, they planned his burial.
Grieving. Devastated. Bereft. The couple was given no explanation as to why their first child had died.
“Things happen,” Lena said, understanding life does not always go your way.
As the couple began to heal, Lena remembers driving over Monteagle Mountain. She and her husband had been thinking of a way to honor their son’s memory. Attuned, to the fact that a healthy birth is not a given, they both believe that all children who are born should be celebrated because it is absolutely a miracle that these beautiful children arrive safely. She got the idea for the foundation before they started up the mountain, and by the time they reached the bottom, “Strick’s Gift” was complete.
Strick’s Gift is a gift of clothing and blankets to celebrate and welcome newborns in need. Typically, there are 20 to 30 pieces of clothing, a blanket and maybe a few other items collected and packed in a cute canvas tote. Half of the clothes are gently used, donated by the community, and the other half are new, purchased with grants awarded or monetary donations.
At first glance this may sound like simply a lovely gesture. After all, don’t most newborns receive all manner of precious baby things?
The truth is that they all do not. Almost half of them.
“When we began, we did not know the extent of the need until we approached the hospitals with this idea in 2008. It turns out, there is a staggering need for clothing for newborns,” Lena said.
Strick’s Gift serves four hospitals in Nashville and Erlanger in Chattanooga. This is a gift and cannot be mistaken as a handout. The adorable canvas bags, filled with sweet baby things that are lovingly wrapped in pastel tissue paper, are stamped with a logo and serve as a beautiful welcome gesture. And these gifts are appreciated.
“I met a new dad in a parking garage once outside of a hospital in Nashville. Admittedly, I was wary of this man approaching me in a semi-dark parking garage. However, it turned out he was a new dad, and he and his wife had just received a Strick’s Gift bag. He said that he’d recently lost his job, the baby came sooner than they expected, and they weren’t prepared. He said that as his wife went through the bag of clothing, she cried at every piece. It was a wonderful encounter that I will never forget,” Lena said.
The couple began this organization when they were barely a year into their profound grief. Explaining their plan made them relive their loss all over again. And again.
“We found ourselves talking about what happened a lot. I guess ultimately that was helpful but emotionally draining for sure,” Lena said.
But their effort to help others was a way to heal.
“Grief requires a tremendous amount of energy. What I have learned is that giving, community service, and helping in any form can replenish the energy of the broken hearted, the lonely, the grieving the depressed - you name it. Serving others is a powerful anecdote,” Lena said.
The card attached to the bags the child receives reads, “Welcome to the World, From one Angel to Another.”
What a lovely way to begin.
by Ferris Robinson
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