Former Eagles cheerleaders create loving NICU care packages for families in need
Former Eagles cheerleaders create NICU care packages for families in Delco
Members of the Philadelphia Professional Football Cheerleading Alumni gathered in Newtown Square Thursday to create care packages that will provide financial and emotional support to families with babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, (NICU).
NEWTOWN SQAURE, Pa. - A group of former Philadelphia Eagles cheerleaders is on a mission to help families dealing with the pain that comes with having children in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, NICU.
Former Eagles cheerleaders may have hung up their pom poms, but the ladies are still in the game of helping people.
Members of the Philadelphia Professional Football Cheerleader Alumni gathered in Newtown Square Thursday to put together NICU care packages for the non-profit "It's a Good Day."
The organization provides financial and emotional support for families with babies in the NICU.
FOX 29’s Dawn Timmeney caught up with the team as they boxed up the care packages.
"Even though we don't cheer anymore, obviously. We do cheer on like-minded people in the community," said Peggy Jansen, Philadelphia Professional Football Cheerleader Alumni.
Former cheerleader, Maggie Hammond, has been a labor and delivery nurse at Jefferson Hospital for 25 years and said the project was a perfect fit.
"You see the struggles. It's heartbreaking," said Maggie Hammond, President of the Philadelphia Professional Football Cheerleading Alumni. "When you think of having a baby, everything is gonna turn out great and you just have all these dreams…Today is a Good Day, actually comes to the hospital I work for so, they are impacting my patients."
Martha Sharkey, founder and CEO of Today is a Good Day, delivered twin girls at 23 weeks back in 2010. Sadly, one of the girls, Mary, passed away after 14 days. Claire spent 103 days in the NICU.
"We felt very alone and overwhelmed," said Sharkey.
Former cheerleader Cathy-Jo Romano knows that feeling as well.
She delivered her twin sons eight weeks early and spent three weeks in the NICU at Abington Hospital.
"It was rough," said Romano. "I thought at one point, because nurses were caring for them a lot, they weren't going to know who their mother was."
Which is why she is so happy to be helping out other families.
Every care package contains a personal handwritten note from a NICU grad.
One of the notes reads: "My mom told me I was in the NICU for 96 days. I'm 9-years-old. My favorite subject is math. I love my parents, baseball and Fortnite. I believe in miracles.- Jabriel Stokes."
Everything in the care packages is carefully selected with a loving touch to let families know they are not alone on this journey.