FREEHOLD, NJ — Little Giada Demma lay in her children’s hospital bed, battling brain cancer, her tiny body swimming in a dull green hospital gown.
Her niece Giuliana Demma remembers looking at the 1-year-old girl and thinking how sad the scene was: a small child dressed in an ugly dress several sizes too big for her.
“I thought to myself, ‘Why does she have to wear this? Why can’t she wear something nicer?’” Giuliana said.
Inspired by that moment, Giuliana Demma, 13, and her 11-year-old sister Audrina sewed and donated more than 1,800 brightly colored, playful patterns to hospital children in 36 states. They’ve even sent them to Uganda, while three other African countries will pick them up in the fall.
Audrina Demma, left, and her sister Giuliana embrace in the basement sewing room of their home in Freehold, N.J., on June 19. The sisters have sewn and donated 1,800 hospital gowns to sick children in 36 states plus Africa. Giuliana was inspired when she saw her nephew wearing an ugly, ill-fitting dress while he was hospitalized with brain cancer in 2017.
Wayne Parry, Associated Press
“I wanted to do something to help children like (Giada) and give them hospital gowns with beautiful patterns, that are colorful, that they can feel comfortable in when they are going through a difficult time,” Giuliana said.
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Their family hired a seamstress to custom-make a Disney princess dress for little Giada, who was hospitalized in 2017 and is now doing well. But as Giuliana grew older over the next four or five years, she developed an interest in sewing and remembered how lost her niece looked years earlier in a dull, ill-fitting dress.
When Giuliana learned to sew, her nephew was no longer hospitalized. But she began making cheerful robes for other sick children. Her first creations were dresses with flamingos and Parisian-themed patterns for a child with cancer her aunt knew.
Giuliana Demma (left) and her sister Audrina sew children’s hospital gowns in the basement of her home in Freehold, New Jersey, on June 19.
Wayne Parry, Associated Press
Giada Demma, then 1 year old, sits in a children’s hospital bed at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York on October 17, 2017, the last day she was scheduled to undergo chemotherapy for cancer.
Melissa Demma
No child ever has to pay for one of her dresses, which are paid for through donations of money and materials. The Starbucks Foundation awarded the project a $3,000 grant this year. A hospital linen company, ImageFIRST in Clifton, New Jersey, cleans all clothes for free before sending them to hospitals, and a women’s group in a nearby housing project and a church youth group help cut fabric for the girls with about 40 volunteers.
Giuliana gets help from her sister, who also loves sewing. Audrina stops by when Giuliana has homework to do, on her way to the basement of their home in Freehold, New Jersey, not far from the Jersey Shore, which has been taken over by the sewing company.
Aurina’s specialty is sewing small pillows for young patients. They are shipped with boxes of markers so that the recipients can color them as they wish during their stay in the hospital.
Audrina made 100 pillows as part of an effort to earn her Girl Scout Bronze award, packaged them up and sent them to hospitals. She makes seasonal themed pillows for St. Patrick’s Day, Valentine’s Day and other special times; last winter she made 100 snowman pillows.
Audrina Demma sews a hospital gown for children in the basement of her Freehold, NJ home on June 19.
Wayne Parry, Associated Press
Nurse Ellen Reynolds of Children’s Surgery International gives a lollipop to patient Ategeka in a bed at Holy Innocents Children’s Hospital in Mbarara, Uganda, on Feb. 2. Ategeka wears a Harry Potter-themed dress made by Giuliana Demma.
Amy Smith, International Pediatric Surgery
They’re often included in kits the girls make, which include rubber ducks and other toys, and a local childhood cancer charity, LIV Like a Unicorn, puts them in boxes they send to children battling cancer. Minnesota-based charity Children’s Surgery International delivered 60 of the gowns to hospitals in Uganda in February, with more headed to Gambia, Liberia and Ethiopia in the fall.
Some recipients write back to thank the girls for the dresses and pillows.
“I love seeing the smiles on the kids’ faces, even though they’re having such a hard time,” says Audrina, who wants to become a veterinarian.
The girls recently began sewing zippers into brightly colored T-shirts to accommodate IV ports for chemotherapy or other medications, eliminating the need for young patients to wear surgical gowns during their hospital stay.
Vito DiSimone, 1, holds a card that came with the special hospital gown he received during a stay at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York on Jan. 11.
Samantha DiSimone
Samantha DiSimone’s son Vito was hospitalized in New York in January for heart valve disease when he was nine months old. Hospital staff brought in a sealed package containing Giuliana’s dress, made of patterned material from the movie “Cars.”
He burst into a big smile as they unpacked the garment.
“I was so emotional,” Samantha DiSimone said. “You’re in a hospital praying for your child to survive the surgery, and to see him in the dress with a big smile on his face is amazing.”
Soft-spoken yet completely at ease talking about her endeavors, Giuliana has the composure and maturity of someone beyond her years, even though she has just graduated from high school. She wants to become a cancer surgeon and said she would love to hear from recipients of the dresses.
“I’m so happy that I can make a difference for them during this difficult time,” she said. “I want them to feel confident and know that they are an inspiration, that they are loved and that they are strong and brave. They can wear these dresses and have something to cheer them up.”
Melissa Demma, Giada’s mother, said the drive of her child’s young cousins to make and give away dresses “amazes me and touches me every single day.”
“They are young girls and this is what they choose to do, spend their time helping others,” she said. “If everyone could be like that, our world would be a better place. It makes me feel better about the future and what this world could be.”
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