Since 2011, Jessica has volunteered to take portraits of families with babies in various NICU units to help give families something to look forward to during their stay and find a sense of normalcy in an otherwise not normal situation. Every parent when expecting their child looks forward to seeing what they look like and planning cute photos to take that when a child comes early, it’s often scary and parents worry others will only see the wires and tubes on such a medically fragile baby. What Jessica does is capture the beauty of babies that makes it so the viewer of the photographs sees the child the way the parents do, beyond the wires and tubes, to let the personalities of these tiny babies just shine through in their portraits.
On top of volunteering for individual families, Jessica also participates in NICU wide events to celebrate the seasons, most notably photographs with Santa every December at Overland Park Regional Medical Center. Since 2014, Jessica has partnered with one of the NICU’s neonatologists who dresses as Santa to photograph each baby in the NICU with Santa so they don’t miss out on their first classic Christmas holiday portrait. Media coverage for this annual event is broadcasted across the city and it’s something that Jessica, Dr. Rob Holcomb as Santa, the NICU staff and parents look forward to every year.
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Currently, Jessica is collaborating with the Circle of Hope NICU Foundation to design and create the very first Wall of Hope for the NICU at Overland Park Regional Medical Center which will be finalized in August 2019.
