Losing a child is never easy, but thankfully, there are Volunteers willing to provide comfort.
The Precious Prints Project is a non-profit program designed to ease the suffering of grieving parents by providing a silver pendant bearing the fingerprint of their lost child. Sponsored by the University of Tennessee College of Nursing and the UT Student Nurses Association, the project delivers free pendants to families at the East Tennessee Children’s Hospital as well as the Parkwest Medical Center.
“To be able to give these to a family and be able to provide a mom dealing with the loss of her baby this print and explain what it is … it’s incredible,” said UT Student Nurses Association philanthropy chair and UT graduate Katie Bolton.
Lynne Miller founded the Precious Prints Project two years ago.
“My grandson gave me a Mother’s Day present of a print that was a necklace with his little fingerprint,” Miller said. “I thought, that would be so nice if that could be used for someone who loses a child in some way, because it’s a tangible piece of jewelry that somebody could wear.”
Miller approached Grant Barton, owner of the local business Precious Metal Prints, with the idea. Barton, who began making fingerprint impression pendants more than four years ago, provides the Precious Prints Project with his pendant kits and services at a reduced cost.
“When I started this business, I never thought I would be doing something like the Precious Prints Project,” Barton said. “It’s just nice to know that folks that are in such an unimaginably difficult situation can get just a little bit of comfort.”
As a non-profit, Precious Prints is entirely dependent on donations and fundraising to operate. The organization hosted the second annual “Sprint for the Prints 5K Run or Walk” race Saturday at Circle Park as a way to raise money and promote awareness. Those who registered paid $30 to participate for a chance to run and compete with other supporters of the charity.
For Bolton, who witnesses child loss daily as a nurse at the East Tennessee Children’s Hospital, the Precious Prints Project is small consolation for mourning parents.
“Although there is a lot of healing and a lot of hope in child cancer right now, there is still a lot of sadness and a lot of loss of life,” Bolton said. “You have to find a way as a nurse to separate yourself and say ‘okay, what can I do for them now?'”
However, Bolton said the experience of providing these pendants is heartening.
“I see so much happiness in these prints.”
