Positive People in Pinecrest – Isabelle Lehman

Positive People in Pinecrest - Isabelle Lehman
Positive People in Pinecrest - Isabelle Lehman
Isabelle Lehman

Miami Palmetto High School senior Isabelle Lehman collects hats for babies in Neonatal Intensive Care Units. She initially wanted to teach people how to knit, but modified her project to collect from people who already know how to knit.

She began collecting last year, halfway through the school year. She had nine people knitting hats, some of them are her friends who knit and others are adults.

“I learned how to knit when I was eight,” she says. “My grandma taught me how to. I wanted to do a community service project with my knitting.”

The idea of using her knitting ability to help preemies was sparked by her memories of her cousin being born prematurely at 25 weeks.

Her cousin weighted less than two pounds and had to spend three months in the NICU. Luckily her cousin is fine now. She is a March of Dimes ambassador.

One of the side benefits of collecting the hats, she was given yarn by people who have given up knitting. That yarn may allow her to expand the program to also teach others how to knit.

“That’s why I like this whole thing,” she says. “I think it’s a cool thing to teach people our age.”

She worked with the National Honor Society to collect the hats and will work again with the club to continue the program.

The hats are simple and making them is easy to do.

“I don’t do traditional knitting,” she says. “I do simpler knitting on a loom.”

Some of the people donating the hats are crocheting them instead of knitting them.

“I’m open to any type of baby hat as long as it’s made with yarn,” she says.

She worked with South Miami Hospital on the program.

Lehman is one of three varsity lacrosse captains. She practiced throughout the fall for January tryouts. The season runs from January to early April.

Outside of school, Lehman volunteers at Dade Therapy Inc., a pediatric therapy and speech therapy office.

“I’ve always been interested in working with kids,” she says. “There are about 10 therapists. I get to observe, but play with a lot of kids who are there for speech therapy. About 50 percent are autistic.”

Other patients have different types of disorders. She’s interested in speech therapy because her sister was in speech therapy at a young age. The office also does occupational therapy.

“I help with the office and help with the organizing and the filing,” she says. “I work with the kids for the most part. The youngest is 18 months old.”

She’s one of the organizers of Project Unify, a club that enables Palmetto students to interact with the special needs class and play sports with them.

“Like a Best Buddies concept,” she says. “Last year we only had two meetings. This year we plan on getting a certain amount of money for field trips and pizza party. We plan to go on trips with them and do arts and crafts.”

She volunteers at Relay for Life every year.

“I was a team captain last year,” she says.

Lehman also volunteers in her mom’s classroom at Perrine Elementary. Even though she was young at the time when her cousin was born, the experience affected her enough that she became determined to become a nurse.

She’s looking at primarily Florida and North Carolina colleges for her nursing degree. Her goal is to become a nurse practitioner.

Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld


Connect To Your Customers & Grow Your Business

Click Here