CREATURE COMFORTS

Winter Haven Hospital Volunteer Crochets Octopuses to Soothe NICU Babies

- PAUL CATALA

GABRIELE ROBINSON has found a unique way to help premature babies. The Winter Haven Hospital volunteer crochets miniature octopus dolls for newborns in the Women’s Hospital Neonatal Infant Care Unit.

Robinson, who has been creating the creatures of comfort since October, says each one takes about five hours to make. So far, she has made about 12 for the hospital.

The octopuses help comfort premature babies. During a recent day volunteering at the hospital, where she spends about 10 hours a week donating her time, Robinson brought in knitted hats for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.

With her most recent octopus donation, she also donated stuffed snowmen. She also knitted eight caps for newborn babies, each made using yarn with the calming colors of baby blue, sunshine orange, lemon yellow and light, lime green, and pink.

From the basket, Robinson pulls out a snowman made of stuffed, white socks and holds it up. She says each one takes her about two hours to complete, but it’s a labor of love as opposed to a chore.

“I love to do it, and I’m thankful that I can do it,” says Robinson, who moved to Winter Haven from Fayetteville, North Carolina, in 1996. “I’m the kind of person, I can’t stand still; I need to be doing something and I’m happy I can do it. It makes me happy to make other people happy.”

Robinson has made about 50 of the miniature snowmen — made with 100 percent cotton socks and washable, sanitized stuffing.