Snow angels

Despite a weekend of bad weather, there was plenty of good to be found.

Hoisting a tiny red shovel, 8-year-old Bryce Buttenwieser volunteered to shovel his neighbor’s sidewalk and porch.

“I kind of like the cold and I like helping my neighbors,” Buttenwieser said.

But his dad says Bryce also had a good excuse.

“It’s a lot better than doing his homework,” Joey Buttenwieser said.

The roads were empty as many stayed inside.

“No, I didn’t want to go outside, its way too cold,” Julia Claussen said.

It wasn’t a lazy day for Claussen though; she spent much of it hunched over a sewing machine.

“They are for babies that pass in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Unfortunately a lot of the hospitals don’t have clothing that’s small enough for these babies,” Claussen said.

Wedding dresses are donated and volunteer seamstresses like Claussen cut them up, and sew them back together to create little gowns the babies can be buried in.

“You take a love of a bride from a wedding gown and wrap the babies in love,” Claussen said.

It’s a part of the Angel Gown Project, organized by NICU Helping Hands.

Claussen says the organization is in need of financial assistance to ship the dresses to and from the seamstresses. You can find their website here.

“This is my third batch. I’ve already sent in 44 completed gowns,” Claussen said.

Angels on a snowy day aren’t always just outside.