JAY – Carley Pomerleau’s bed was wheeled through her house to the dining room Wednesday where people had gathered who had helped her collect gifts for critically sick children in a Portland hospital.
Those who didn’t fit in the dining room stood in the kitchen or the living room.
They waited for the moment Carley, who turns 15 today, would see one of her dreams come true.
Nurses from the pediatric intensive care unit at Maine Medical Center in Portland were coming to collect the gifts because Carley has been too sick to deliver them herself.
Carley put her family and friends to work in December to gather soft blankets, games, DVDs, portable DVD players, audio books, sweat pants, notepads and other items to make a critically ill or dying child’s stay at the hospital more comfortable and interesting.
Carley established “Gifts from the Heart,” which also provides bags of items to keep patients’ siblings occupied.
Carley has been in and out of the hospital herself many times since she was a child and knows what it’s like to be bored in the hospital, Carley said.
She has myopathy, which causes weak muscles. That spurred scoliosis, or curvature of the spine, and she has developed an unknown muscular dystrophy. She has to use a respiratory machine or a portable lung while sleeping to help her exhale.
She is bedridden and on medication to help with the pain in her nerves and muscles.
Carley had wanted to deliver the gifts herself on Valentine’s Day, but she was in the hospital herself and couldn’t make it.
As word spread about Carley’s project, more people started donating, including the Jay Parent Teachers Organization, Carley’s classmates, the Farmington Emblem Club, churches and individuals.
Carley’s mother, Dianna Pomerleau, said Wednesday that they received donations from people they didn’t even know. They have more than 50 bags full of donated items, and they plan to keep the effort going.
There was so much chatter in the house Wednesday that you had to lean close to Carley to hear what she was saying.
“I didn’t expect it to be this big,” Carley said of the gathering.
She said she was hoping to expand the program to be able to send gifts to the children in the pediatrics unit at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston.
As a group of friends stopped to talk to Carley, her mother said that Carley is doing “OK.”
“She’s on a lot of medicine to help with pain,” Pomerleau said. “She wanted to go back to school.”
Once the nurses arrived from the hospital, Carley’s father announced that Carley had something to say.
“I’d like to thank everyone for their participation and for all the hours you put into this,” Carley said. “Thank you very, very much. … I hope it will make the time less tedious and boring (for children in the hospital).”
“No offense guys,” Carley said as she tipped her head back to where the nurses were standing, prompting those gathered to erupt in laughter.
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