Richmond artist Sunny Stack Goode
Artist Sunny Stack Goode is on a mission to help families bond and to foster compassion in the wider community through her LOVEVOLVE Swaddle Mission program. Babies born in local hospitals are swaddled in Goode’s locally designed and ethically made blankets with the word “love” printed on them. The idea behind the project is based on research that shows even just seeing positive words can change someone’s brain.
Goode started LOVEVOLVE last fall after a period of personal transition. "I need[ed] something to keep me going," she says. Despite having three children and a successful art career, her marriage had fallen apart, and she was left wondering how to move forward with everything, including her creative work. “I divorced, moved and empty-nested in a three-month period,” she says. “I could not paint. I had no inspiration. I felt paralyzed.” As her situation was compounded with a health scare in 2018, Goode began asking herself life’s big questions. “When you go through something like that, you really reevaluate what your life is about. What is your purpose?”
Eventually she found herself outlining the word “love” over and over again, and something clicked. “I looked down on the floor at all these squares [I had made with the word ‘love’ on them], and I saw the word ‘evolve,’ ” she says. “I thought, ‘Does everybody know this?’ It really inspired me to make all this artwork.”
She began creating LOVE art, then made scarves, then baby blankets with the word printed on them. After reading a book on how positive words can influence the human brain, Goode was convinced her creations could do more than provide comfort and warmth; they had the potential to strengthen families and help with the transition to parenthood. “If new families have their baby wrapped in love, they have this very visual reminder,” she says. “The word ‘love’ is so healing.”
A series of serendipitous events led to the creation of a growing program at local hospitals and women’s health centers. The first place to adopt the program was Henrico Doctors’ Hospital, where Lisa Carson, associate chief nursing officer, spearheaded the effort. When Goode pitched the idea, Carson instantly took to it. “That’s just a no-brainer, we’ll figure out how to make this work,” she recalls.
Newborns swaddled in LOVE blankets at an HCA hospital
Both Goode and Carson note that the LOVEVOLVE project came at a particularly salient time, its launch coinciding with last summer’s widespread social unrest, as communities across the country grappled with issues around justice, racialized violence and diversity.
“[Love] is the foundation of change in our society. We have so many problems because we don't have healthy relationships,” Goode says. “As a culture we forget about being compassionate.” She sees her work as part of a larger opportunity to help heal the country. “This isn't a hobby business,” she says. “I look at our society and think, ‘When is enough enough?’ ”
The design of the blankets also changed over time to reflect Goode’s growing awareness in a world where baby blankets are often only offered in cool tones of pinks and blues that aren’t complementary for many skin tones.
“I was thinking to myself, ‘I wish the baby blankets looked prettier on every skin tone,’ ” Goode says. “It was a vision, a sign of inclusivity. Every single baby you wrap in this blanket looks like it's supposed to be there.”
Carson, too, took into account the larger cultural context as she considered bringing the program to HCA. “We’re not looking at your race, we don’t care where you’re from,” she says. “We just want you to know that we love you, that we’re going to take care of your baby.”
The swaddle program is as much educational as it is emotionally supportive. One of the central components is sharing resources and materials from the One Love Foundation, an organization dedicated to teaching young people about healthy relationships and avoiding abusive ones.
“I was in a relationship for a very long time where I did not feel loved,” Goode says. She also dove into statistics around child abuse. “New parents just don’t have the tools,” she says. She says young people who eventually start families of their own aren’t educated about healthy relationships. “If you’re prepared to be in physical contact with someone, you need to be prepared to be in emotional contact with them.” The project aims to donate 5% of profits made from the program each year to the foundation.
Carson says the blankets have received a warm welcome from hospital staff and patients. “They love the message,” she says. “[Patients] would put them on Instagram and people would reach back out to say they want to give one to their friends and ask how they could order one.” Henrico Doctors’ Hospital is now using Goode’s work in other units as well, including in the NICU as an incubator cover, in its bereavement program and the pediatric unit where they often encounter youth who are runaways or from group homes. Carson says other hospitals have called to find out more about the program and how they can replicate it.
Since September 2020, Goode says more than 3,000 babies in Richmond have been given the love blankets. There are plans for many more to be gifted, including budding programs at Bon Secours St. Mary’s Hospital and HCA’s Chippenham and Johnston-Willis hospitals. Although Goode has other projects on the horizon, the swaddle program remains closest to her heart. “I would give up everything to make this happen,” she says.
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