About 430 Books Collected For NICU Babies

All it takes is an idea, and you never know what will happen when others rally around that idea.

Such was the case when we earlier wrote a story about a book drive here at Xavier to benefit the NICU at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center. The hospital’s Tiny Tales reading program had a campaign to collect books for parents to read to babies in the NICU.

Enter Aedan Frazer, Xavier Class of 2023, who was an avid reader growing up, and his mother Milena, a NICU nurse at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center. She knows the importance of reading to babies and how it helps the baby develop. Studies have shown that the number of words a child knows when entering kindergarten can predict future learning success.

Aedan led the book drive in late September, during which more than 430 books were brought in by students, faculty and staff. Aedan also had collected a few hundred outside of Xavier.

“Aedan and I are overwhelmed with appreciation, and we are so proud to be a part of the amazing Xavier family,” Milena said after the book drive was over.