Our Story
Knots for NICU Foundation is a 501(c)3 student-founded, and student-led by founder and president Karis Wales. 100% of donations and proceeds support the students' work and needs, as Knots for NICU Foundation's Board of Directors are 100% volunteer. Founder and President Karis Wales has opened 4 out of its 5 chapters nationally, personally serving as chapter president at 4 chapters: AMS, BHS, ACP, and Choate Rosemary Hall.
BEGINNINGS
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 NICU was born.
BEGINNINGS
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 NICU 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 consisted of 80+ members.
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INCORPORATION
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.
NATIONAL EXPANSION
In the fall of 2025, Foundation Founder and President Karis Wales drove national expansion overseeing the first national chapter to open in Texas. In 2026, the first east coast chapter opened in Georgia, and the announcement of another east coast national chapter to open in Connecticut by the end of the year. These are the first chapters to open outside of Arizona! With national expansion from Arizona into Texas, Georgia, and beyond, Knots for NICU became the nation’s largest student-led nonprofit that serves the NICU/preemie community, with over 245 students and community volunteers nationwide, supported by countless donors from around the world.
PRESENTLY
As of 2026, the club makes hats, headbands, blankets, burial gowns, Angel Blankets, 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.
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.
NATIONAL EXPANSION
In the fall of 2025, Foundation Founder and President Karis Wales drove national expansion overseeing the first national chapter to open in Texas. In 2026, the first east coast chapter opened in Georgia, and the announcement of another east coast national chapter to open in Connecticut by the end of the year. These are the first chapters to open outside of Arizona! With national expansion from Arizona into Texas, Georgia, and beyond, Knots for NICU became the nation’s largest student-led nonprofit that serves the NICU/preemie community, with over 245 students and community volunteers nationwide, supported by countless donors from around the world.
PRESENTLY
As of 2026, the club makes hats, headbands, blankets, burial gowns, Angel Blankets, 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 and Angel Blankets 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.
GROWTH PLANS Knots for NICU's most recent growth plans included companionship crocheting with elders in senior homes (launched in early 2025), and donating dresses and suits to terminally ill children in hospice (launched in early 2025), a vision to open additional club chapters around the United States (national expansion began in fall 2025) to expand their impact! VISION Future visions include continuing national expansion nationwide expanding as the largest student-led non-profit to support babies in the NICU, and also expanding our product line to continue to support even more families with pediatric struggles and illnesses. |
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