GUILDERLAND — New children’s books are being collected for “Project: Cameron’s Story,” a not-for-profit organization that collects books for families of babies in the neonatal intensive care unit at more than a dozen area hospitals.

The project was started by Sarah Quartiers whose baby boy, Cameron, was born on Feb. 16, 2009, five weeks before his due date. “But we never gave up,” say words in a video made by Quartiers’s daughter. The family brought Cameron home after 213 days in the intensive care unit only to have him readmitted to the hospital. He died on Oct. 20, 2009.

In Cameron’s memory, books are donated to NICUs so that parents may read to their tiny premature babies, babies who are often too fragile to be held.

One of those books was given to Jamie Mullins, a reading teacher at Farnsworth Middle School in Guilderland, when her baby boy, born prematurely and was hospitalized in an isolette for 16 days.

“It gave us some sense of normalcy,” Mullins told The Enterprise earlier. It also gave the family hope.

“You’re thinking, ‘What will things be like 24 hours from now? In a week?’ I thought, ‘I can tell him about this book and tell him, ‘When you were in the hospital, we read this to you.’ In such a scary, unpredictable time, it gives you comfort,” said Mullins.

This year, books are being collected through Feb. 17 at Altamont Elementary, Guilderland Elementary, Farnsworth Middle School, and Guilderland High School. This is the third year Guilderland schools have participated, and over 1,500 books have been donated through the district’s efforts. This year’s goal is to donate 1,000 books.

The books have to be new because they are used in a sterile environment, and should avoid religious themes since families of varied beliefs will be using them. Big books with lots of pictures are best.

Books may be ordered online through Scholastic, which is linked through the school district’s website, guilderlandschools.org.

Suggested titles include: “Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel,” “Stellaluna,” “Love You Forever,” “Where the Wild Things Are,” “The Poky Little Puppy,” “and The Little Engine That Could.”

At the middle school, students can return completed order forms and/or bring books to any house office, as well as to reception. Altamont Elementary students can drop forms off in the main office and books to Molly Normile’s room. Guilderland Elementary students can drop off order forms and books to Anna Hanson’s room. Guilderland High School students can drop off to the West Office.

— Melissa Hale-Spencer