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Tiny Miracles Foundation Gala Friday In Westport

WESTPORT, Conn., -- A fundraising gala will help to boost a local group that provides help to parents of premature babies.

Val Saltzman, left, and Carrie Cromwell-Hunt, right, are co-chairs of a fundraising gala for the Tiny Miracles Foundation.

Val Saltzman, left, and Carrie Cromwell-Hunt, right, are co-chairs of a fundraising gala for the Tiny Miracles Foundation.

Photo Credit: Contributed

The Tiny Miracles Foundation is hosting its fundraising gala, Club Miracles, beginning at 6:30 p.m. at The Inn at Longshore in Westport, 260 Compo Road South. There will be silent and live auctions. Club chic attire is recommended.

Carrie Cromwell-Hunt is one of the co-chairs of the event with Val Saltzman. For Cromwell-Hunt, the event is a special one for her as she is the mother of premature twins Mason and Eloise, who turned three on Dec. 20. The children had been born three months before their due date.

It was during a low point after she had given birth when she was visited by LeeLee Klein, of Tiny Miracles who offered her support as a mother who had premature babies.

"Everything was going wrong, relapses, a second blood transfusion," Cromwell-Hunt said about the organization that was created in 2004. "That’s when I met LeeLee. She just listened and when you are in that situation it is really hard to talk to people who haven’t been and who don’t understand what you are going through."

It was that support that helped her get through that trying time and she has thrown her support behind the group to help others.

"It is the most unbelievable charity and it was started by a couple of moms who just wanted support from one another," Cromwell-Hunt said. "They send mentors to the hospital to talk to parents who are going through this unbelievably difficult time."

Saltzman first came into contact with Tiny Miracles when she volunteered her services during an event about five years ago, she said, and had no inkling that it would assume a much more significant role in her life.

It was on Labor Day Monday in 2014 that she was told she had to immediately go to Norwalk Hospital due to complications in her pregnancy. She was still three months away from her due date. The next morning volunteers from Tiny Miracles had already visited her hospital room even though she didn't give birth until three days later when twins Mikaela and Beckham arrived at 2 pounds and 10 ounces and three pounds respectively.

Despite the difficulties associated with the premature birth, Saltzman said she and her husband William Nealon, were blessed with financial stability that many people do not have.

"I was lucky. They were born very healthy and I had very good health insurance,” she said. "While we aren't rich we didn’t need any financial support."

She said the organization's role in helping parents and premature children have made them enthusiastic backers. "My husband and I really truly believe in the organization. We became firm believers,'' Saltzman said.

Meredith Daniels and Gwendolyn Field Noto co-founded the organization.

The online auction at: https://www.501auctions.com/ttmf2016 is now open.

The guest speaker will be Jane Geddes, a retired golf professional.

For more information on the organization and the gala go to: http://ttmf.org/

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