Tamara Baker

Tamara Baker’s family and her community have always been her first career. While raising her four children, she served as Vice President of her local Civic Association and volunteered to teach preschool in the Lindenhurst School District. When her three daughters expressed interest in Girl Scouts, Ms. Baker became a Girl Scout Leader, serving for 12 years. As her son grew to scouting age, she became a Boy Scout Leader, while also raising funds for the Troop.

One day, in a doctor’s office, Ms. Baker met and played with children undergoing cancer treatment. Extremely touched by these children and their illness, the grandmother of five looked for a way to help them. From deep inside her came the idea for blankets, thus beginning We Care Blankets. Starting small, Ms. Baker and several volunteer crafters crocheted and delivered blankets to a local hospital. As word spread, many more crafters volunteered their talents. Before long, We Care Blankets was delivering to more than 30 hospitals throughout the Long Island and NYC Metro areas and other parts of the United States, and has done so for 17 years.

Ms. Baker and other crafters also create sweaters, booties, hats and blankets for financially needy newborns in need of clothing to wear home. They send the lovingly hand-wrapped items to hospitals’ neo-natal units and newborn nurseries.

The Ronald McDonald House has also been receiving blankets for siblings of young cancer patients from Ms. Baker’s group, and blankets were also sent to disaster-area shelters in the aftermaths of Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Harvey.

Ms. Baker’s family has learned the beauty of helping others. Her granddaughters have donated their hair for wigs, raised funds for Harvard Hospital Pediatric Cancer Unit, and wrapped and delivered the blankets that We Care Blankets so generously create.

Currently residing in Massapequa, Ms. Baker’s hope is that cancer will be eradicated in her lifetime and that We Care Blankets volunteers will knit and crochet blankets only for healthy newborns departing the hospital. Ms. Baker has distinguished herself among her peers and has truly earned the title of “Woman of Distinction.”