Fort Worth Chapter helps raise funds for neonatal crib cams

For decades, the Fort Worth Chapter of Credit Unions has held annual fundraising events to benefit its local Children's Miracle Network Hospital, Cook Children's Medical Center. Over the past 10 years, the chapter has held a Shake, Wag & Bowl event at a local bowling alley benefiting the Sit…Stay…PLAY facility dog program, which supports therapy dogs as part of Cook Children’s Child Life program. This event hosted hundreds of Fort Worth credit union employees and partners. Funds for the event came from online giving, silent auctions, registrations, and games at the one-night event. In 2019, the event raised more than $60,000.

But due to the pandemic, the Fort Worth Chapter was unable to host the event this year. “The Fort Worth Chapter of Credit Unions Miracle Team was so disappointed that the event could not be held this year due to COVID-19, and we all wanted to seek out something we could do as a group to fulfill a need at Cook Children’s,” said Beth Peters, Unity One Credit Union and Miracle Team chair for the Fort Worth Chapter of Credit Unions.

In late September, the chapter found out that Cook Children’s Medical Center was in dire need of cameras for their Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the hospital faces limited visitation in the NICU, making the need for crib cameras even more critical.

Up to this point, single rooms had been a huge asset to families by lessening the length of stay and promoting bonding and breastfeeding. Many of the families were from out of town, and at some point, they had to return to everyday life, other children, and work obligations. 

Cameras at the crib would provide the next level of family-centered care that Cook Children’s is known for. The hospital’s goal is to implement crib cams on all 106 beds in the NICU and offering the entire family access to their infants via live-streaming visual access, providing greater peace of mind.

To help Cook Children’s accomplish its goal, the Fort Worth chapter put in place an online giving portal and created a contest among local Fort Worth credit unions. The event raised more than $8,200, which will allow Cook Children’s Medical Center to purchase at least three crib cams for the NICU area.

Crib cams provide parents live-streaming visual access to their newborns, allowing them to engage inside the hospital and out.