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Students Make Blankets For Hospital That Treats Newborns

By Jeff Todd

DENVER (CBS4) - They may only be 6 and 7 years old, but a group of kids from around the Conifer area know some families going through a difficult time will be thankful this year for the blankets they've provided.

"They're warm," said Rowan Johnson. "We're going to deliver them to here. For the NICU ward."

Rowan is part of a Destination Imagination team at Elk Creek Elementary School. The other kids in the group wanted to donate 10 blankets to a place Rowan has spent a lot of time at lately.

"They went to Wyatt's house and they went in his fort and that's where they decided to make the blankets," Rowan said of his teammates.

Rowan's younger brother Landry was born at just 25 weeks and spent more than six months at the Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

Rocky Mountain Hospital For Children
(credit: CBS)

"Because Rowan was spending so much time at the hospital with all of us and Landry, his teammates decided to do something in the name of Landry, so they decided to make blankets for the NICU," said Rowan's mom Jennifer Johnson.

When she first found out about the kids' plan for the blankets, Jennifer said "My husband and I cried. (Landry) was still in the NICU when they made that decision so it was incredibly close to our heart. I just love that they thought about him and they thought about us as a family and they thought about all the kids in the NICU."

Blankets (1)
CBS4's Jeff Todd interviews Jennifer Johnson (credit: CBS)

A call for help went out around Conifer, Pine and Bailey. A total of 59 people showed up to help make 30 blankets. The others went to groups in need around the area.

"It's amazing, really shows their ingenuity and drive and what an amazing way to give back to their community so it's very, very cool," said Dr. Trish Hagan, who works in the NICU. "They brought some much needed blankets to the NICU to help our families have a little bit of comforts of home."

Jeff Todd joined the CBS4 team in 2011 covering the Western Slope in the Mountain Newsroom. Since 2015 he's been working across the Front Range in the Denver Headquarters. Follow him on Twitter @CBS4Jeff.

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