By Donna Perry,Staff Writer

JAY – Fourteen-year-old Carley Pomerleau was in a Portland hospital on Valentine’s Day, instead of delivering the gifts she’s been collecting for critically ill children like herself.

It was the fourth time since December her family had packed up some of her favorite possessions, including her fleece blankets and a portable DVD player, and her medical equipment to go to the hospital.

Lately, Carley has been suffering a lot of pain in her petite body and doctors are looking for ways to ease it.

The eighth-grader has myopathy, which causes weak muscles. In Carley’s case, it also brought on scoliosis, or curvature of the spine.

She has an unknown muscular dystrophy, her mother said. She has to use a respiratory machine or a portable lung while sleeping to provide negative pressure to help her exhale.

When Carley was in elementary school, she used a white cane when she walked to help guide her because of a visual impairment. She progressed to a wheelchair and now, because of frequent pain in her neck, back and lower part of her body, she is pretty much bedridden.

But Carley’s spirit hasn’t wavered even in the face of deteriorating health. She is as determined as ever to live up to her reputation of being “tough as nails.”

Carley was going home from the hospital Friday. No doubt, she’d be calling the shots from her hospital bed in her bedroom.

Carley is focused on her “Gifts from the Heart” to make very sick children and their siblings more comfortable at the hospital.

Carley, the program director, put her family, friends and the community to work in December to collect items she thought they’d enjoy. She and her mother, Dianna Pomerleau, list the items in a purple notebook that’s never far from Carley’s bed.

As of Feb. 1, she’d collected: 16 blankets, three portable DVD players and numerous board games, books on tape, stuffed toys and other items.

As soon as she can, Carley plans to deliver the items to the pediatric intensive care unit at Maine Medical Center and the pediatric unit at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston.

She’d hoped to make the Portland delivery on Valentine’s Day because that was the day she received her portable lung two years ago. But instead, the delivery was postponed.

Carley said she wants children to have some special things as well as something to do when they’re in the hospital. She knows how she feels when her family brings her special items, including her purple blanket with stars on it, when she goes to the hospital.

In fact, when the teenager is in the hospital, she’s known for having the hospital room with the most stuff in it, her mother said.

For the siblings, also

For now, the items she’s collected await delivery in the family’s sitting room at their Jay home. Carley’s even thought of the siblings of sick children and has bags made up for them.

“I saw a need, and I acted on it,” Carley said.

People from all over are helping her reach her goal.

They have pitched in money, made cloth bags and donated blankets and other items for the program.

“My goal is to always have all the age groups set up,” Carley said.

Friends at the Jay Middle School have organized bottle drives and hat days with the money going to “Gifts from the Heart.”

Her mother said Carley has a huge heart and is always concerned about others.

“I plan to keep this program going all year-round,” Carley said.