Volunteers work diligently at Redlands Sewing Center on June 10 to create 200 stockings for the Total Care Birth Center at LLUCH.

It’s only summer but the Total Care Birth Center (TCBC) at Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital (LLUCH) is already gearing up for Christmas.

Volunteers from the community gathered at Redlands Sewing Center on June 10, to put together the stockings in readiness for Christmas 2017.

Two hundred stockings were made and will be given to babies born Dec. 10 through Christmas day at LLUCH.

In years past, TCBC nurses organized sewing parties to make the stockings.

Last year, TCBC's nurses made 100 Christmas stockings for all babies born from the second week of December until Christmas Day – but 100 wasn’t enough. This year, they are getting ahead with the help of the local business and nursing staff from the hospital.

When asked why this project was important to them, TCBC nurses referred to scripture: “A gift opens the way and ushers the giver into the presence of the great.” (Pro. 18:16).