Pictured (l to r): Melvin Sheppard Sr.; Melvin Sheppard; Gary E. Stahl, MD, Head, Division of Neonatology; Denise Sheppard; Joanne Fox, RN, Clinical Director of the NICU; and Robyn Harvey, Executive Director, Women and Children’s Services.
Every year for the past 11 years, Melvin Sheppard of Moorestown, NJ, visits the Children’s Regional Hospital at Cooper’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit with a special mission. Sheppard, now 18, was born nine weeks premature at Cooper in 1997 weighing only 2.9 pounds. As a token of thanks and gratitude for the medical care he received as a premature infant, the Moorestown, NJ, teenager conducts a year-long penny collection and donates the proceeds to the hospital. Since he began his Pennies for Preemies campaign, Melvin has collected and donated more than $2,500 as a way of giving back and helping other premature babies get a good start in life. Donations have been used to purchase specialized equipment for the unit.