Extraordinary Ordinaries: The baby hat brigade

TAMPA (FOX 13) - The labor and delivery nurses at St. Joseph's Women's Hospital are busy-- really busy. The hospital welcomes more than 7,000 newborns each year.

One nurse, Jennifer McCutcheon, has been there for six years. With the team around her, she couldn't imagine being anywhere else.

"If there is an emergency, we all have a job. We all know what the person needs before we even have to say it. We don't even have to speak sometimes. You have to be a close knit team here!" McCutcheon told Fox 13 News.

And the pun is intended. A majority of the staff members knit, or crochet or both. They use their skills to make hats for the newborns.  

It was all started by a nurse named Paula, so the effort is named "Paula's Project" in her honor.

"She passed away in September, and it was a way for us to remember her. She'd be really proud of us, really proud, and would be saying 'Way to go ladies, I know you could do it!'" McCutcheon said.

Through Paula's Project, the memory of a life taken too soon is now passed on to the newest of arrivals.

The nurses and employees also make "themed hats" for the different holidays.

Paula's Project isn't just for the babies. McCutcheon said, "It allows us to get rid of the negative and all the hate and just bring love into the room, each and every day, every shift. It's our way of spreading love, to everyone, really."