12-Year Old Benefactor to Babies; Raises Donations and Brings Gifts for NICU

Michaela Palmer with NICU director Dr. Jeffrey Perlman
and NICU Patient Care Director Mary McCready.

(NYPress, July 2009)

A Bat Mitzvah celebration, the Jewish rite of passage celebrated by young girls on the verge of adulthood, involves religious observance and, often, a festive meal or party and gifts. But instead of receiving a steady stream of presents, 12-year-old Michaela Palmer celebrated her Bat Mitzvah by handing them out.

Michaela, along with her father, Jay Palmer; mother, Lesley Palmer; and 8-year-old sister, Jordanna, toured the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at NYP/Weill Cornell's Phyllis and David Komansky Center for Children's Health on May 21 and handed out gifts of CD players and other toys to its tiny patients.

As part of her Bat Mitzvah process, Michaela, a student at the Solomon Schechter School in Manhattan, chose a service project that was consistent with the responsibilities that come with her newfound adulthood. By selling rubber bracelets bearing the slogan "A NICU Needs You," Michaela was able to raise almost $500. She raised another $2,000 in donations for the NICU. The money from the bracelet sales went toward the purchase of the five CD players after physicians and nurses in the unit told Michaela that soft music is beneficial to newborns. She also bought 10 development mobiles for the unit's cribs.

"This was important to me," Michaela said. "I wanted to do something good for the babies. I asked the doctors what they needed and was able to help them out."

"On behalf of the people who work in all of these units, we greatly appreciate these gifts," says Jeffrey Perlman, M.D., Chief of the Division of Newborn Medicine and Director of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit."

Adapted from NYPress, July 2009 p.7
Photo by Rene Perez