Mentor Teen's Charity Warms The Hearts Of Hospital Patients

When Ashley Imbrogno was five years old, she had a bad allergic reaction to routine shots and needed to go to the hospital.

While there, a boy who was going through chemotherapy gave her a stuffed bear to keep her company.

While Ashley never learned the boy's name, she never forgot the feeling his actions gave her.

"I felt comforted because I knew somebody cared about me," said Ashley.

Two years later, Ashley told her mother, Karen Imbrogno, that she wanted to give others the same feeling.

Coincidentally, Ashley had just made a Cleveland Browns blanket for her father as a gift, so she struck upon the idea of making of making blankets for hospital patients.

"We can do a few," Karen remembered telling her daughter.

That first year, Ashley, Karen and a group of about 10 friends and neighbors made 300 blankets for those in the hospital.

By the third year, the operation became so big they had to form a charity and Warming the Hearts was born.

Ashley is now a 14-year-old and a student at . On Monday, she and other students gathered in the school's library after classes had ended to make more blankets.

In the last seven years, Warming the Hearts has received $60,000 in donations and given more than 6,000 blankets to children and adults in the hospital.

Ashley's happy that Warming the Hearts has touched so many people and she also has enjoyed some fun, fringe benefits. For example, she's been invited to be the grand marshal at the Walt Disney World parade twice.

However, she's quick to note that none of this could occur without the donors and more than 100 volunteers who have helped over the years.

"They keep it going," she said. "Without the volunteers, (Warming the Hearts) wouldn't be where it is today."

"This is not her project," Karen Imbrogno added. "It's everyone's."

Ashley has several anecdotes about donors' generosity, as well.

"One boy just asked for money on his birthday," she said, "He ended up with $100 and he gave it all to Warming the Hearts."

Some people who have received a blanket also donate to the charity.

"They're contributing to someone else's happiness," Ashley said. "They're helping someone else feel the way they did."

On Monday, Warming the Hearts volunteers and Ashley made blankets for breast cancer patients at Lake Health hospitals. They chose them, in part, because Ashley's grandmother is a 10-year breast cancer survivor.

They will gather to make more blankets after school on Feb. 2 and Feb. 9 at Lake Catholic.

In the past, the charity has given 6,000 blankets to more than 25 locations, including to soldiers overseas.

"And it started out with a couple of neighbor kids," Karen Imbrogno said.

The money to buy materials for Warming the Hearts comes entirely from donations. If people want to give, they can donate at http://warmingthehearts.com/pages/donate.html.