Our Story
Knots for NICU was founded in August 2022 by Karis Wales when she was a 12 year-old and a student at Basha Accelerated Middle School (AMS) in Chandler, Arizona. When Karis was in seventh grade, she wanted to start a club in her middle school, drawing on having learned to crochet from a friend. She weighed her own experience as a preemie baby in the NICU, recollecting how her mother would cry reminiscing over the tiny beanie hats volunteers had donated that nurses donned on her and her twin. Combining her new crochet skill with the touching sentiment of giving back to other families with critical babies, Knots for NIC was born.
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The after school club began in 2022 with just three members in its infancy, making only hats and headbands. The first year's donation totaled 125 handmade items to the hospital at which all three initial club members we born over a decade prior! In Knots for NICU’s second year of 2023, the club had grown to 30 members, still located solely at AMS middle school. The club expanded the items it made to include handcrafted swaddling blankets and sewn burial gowns made from donated wedding dresses. In its third year, the summer of 2024, Knots for NICU expanded to high school campuses for the first time at Arizona College Prep high school (ACP), as well as expanding to Basha High School (BHS) along with AMS middle school. In total, the club consists of 80+ members.
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In the fall of 2024, Knots for NICU officially incorporated in Arizona and became a recognized 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, with public charity status of 509(a)(2). Knots for NICU Foundation is youth founded and youth led.
As of 2025, the club makes hats, headbands, blankets, burial gowns, scent hearts, stuffed animals, and handmade thank you letters for hospital staff. Hats and headbands are knitted and crocheted - skills which are taught by club officers to new members. Fabric blankets are cut and sewn at club chapter meetings using donated sewing machines from the Phoenix-area communities.
As of 2025, the club makes hats, headbands, blankets, burial gowns, scent hearts, stuffed animals, and handmade thank you letters for hospital staff. Hats and headbands are knitted and crocheted - skills which are taught by club officers to new members. Fabric blankets are cut and sewn at club chapter meetings using donated sewing machines from the Phoenix-area communities.
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Burial gowns are designed and constructed from donated wedding dresses, and sewn at club chapter meetings on gifted sewing machines. Scent hearts are cut and sewn material hearts that are given to NICU parents to hold their scent. The scent hearts are then given to the NICU babies to pass on the smell of their parents to promote bonding. Lastly, the club handwrites thank you cards to give to NICU nurses and staff with every donation.
Knots for NICU's most recent growth plans include companionship crocheting with elders in senior homes, and donating dresses and suits to terminally ill children in hospice, and has a vision to open additional club chapters around Arizona and beyond to expand their impact! |
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