Unexpected Gifts

Even before Lena Levendoski and her husband Geoff set foot in Baptist Hospital on that 20th day of July, 2007, to give birth to their precious baby boy, they knew that he’d passed away in the womb. Levendoski was 36 weeks pregnant when an ultrasound revealed that Strick’s heart had stopped beating. No warning. No explanation. Just the excruciating pain of losing a child before they even got to say hello.

“He was beautiful ... absolutely beautiful,” Levendoski says, remembering the day she delivered Strick and held him in her arms.

They planned a memorial service. They spread Strick’s ashes. They began the unbearable process of surviving the death of a child.

Then, one blurry year later, the couple struggled with what to do on what might have been Strick’s first birthday. And on July 20, 2008, in a 10-minute conversation on the way home from the family lake house, the idea for “Strick’s Gift” just “landed” on them.

“It took us a year to even lift our heads up and say, ‘Let’s do something,’” Levendoski explains. “The tears had worn a path down my face and Geoff’s face, and then the idea just showed up. It was Strick’s first gift.”

The couple decided that though they couldn’t do anything about stillbirths, they could celebrate the babies who made it here safely. They could commemorate the miracle of life.

That night, they purchased the URL Stricksgift.org, and they began solidifying the concept that would honor their son. Today, Strick’s Gift is an organization that collects new and gently-used clothing and blankets for newborns in need. The donated items are wrapped in blue tissue paper and placed in bags that bear the Strick’s Gift logo, along with a card that reads “from one angel to another.” The gift bags are delivered to Baptist Hospital, the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt’s newborn nursery, and Nurses for Newborns, an organization that provides in-home nurse visits to at-risk families. At each location, nurses and case workers distribute the bags to needy families, in most cases just hours after a child is born.

Cherie Hackney, case manager at Baptist (which was the first hospital to receive Strick’s Gifts until an increase in donations allowed the organization to expand its reach), says the gift bags have been a huge hit.

“People are just shocked and surprised that someone would give them something for free, and all the moms are very grateful,” she says. “There’s such a huge need, especially in this economy, and there are a lot of single parents out there, so having a few weeks worth of stuff to get them started is a big deal.”

Levendoski discovered that first-hand in a chance encounter in the Baptist parking lot after delivering her second batch of bags. A man with a flower in one hand and an “It’s a Boy” sign in the other thanked her, saying, “You’re the one bringing those bags in here. My wife cried through every single thing she pulled out of the bag.”

His reaction was all the reassurance Levendoski needed that Strick’s Gift was indeed making a difference.

“I was excited because I felt like even just for this one person, Strick’s Gift had served its purpose,” she says.

But Levendoski, who recently resigned from her job to focus on growing the organization, stresses that this is a community project.

“I’m just a facilitator,” she says. “Anybody who donates clothes or goes out and buys clothes to give to Strick’s Gift is making an impact on a child’s life. I’m just giving people an opportunity to do something for the community.”

In fact, in addition to those who have contributed items, others have donated their time and services. Crookston Design designed the Strick’s Gift logo and Web site. The Belmont Animal Hospital provides Levendoski with basement office space, where she assembles bags and stores donations. And Bass Berry & Sims law firm helped fill out and submit the 501(c)3 application granting Strick’s Gift non-profit status.

Levendoski would like to continue increasing the number of Nashville hospitals that receive gift bags and eventually reach out to other Tennessee communities and possibly other states. She’s ramping up efforts to get the word out and is working on establishing Strick’s Gift “partners,” select retail stores around Nashville serving as drop off points for Strick’s Gift donations in return for online promotion on Stricksgift.org.

On an even happier note, Levendoski and her husband gave birth to a healthy baby boy named Henry on Sept. 13, 2008. And while she can certainly say that her days are brighter now, she says she doesn’t believe things happen for a reason or “that good things come from bad things.”

“This is just something that Geoff and I can do to heal,” she says. “It’s a gift from Strick, and it’s a calling to help other babies in the community. I’m not 100 percent better because we have Strick’s Gift, and I’m not better because we have a second child, but I’m OK.”