Angels of Nick Ramcke Fund
A Legacy of Community Compassion
Our health care providers give so much – their time, their expertise, and their compassion. Nick Ramcke knew from personal experience how important that dedication and attention was. As Nick’s mother Heidi looked for ways to give back to our community and share her compassion, she and her aunt and several friends and family members hit upon an idea – knitting and crocheting baby blankets, booties, and hats for every new born at Middlesex Health and Yale New Haven Hospital. They knew Nick would appreciate that every newborn would be wrapped in his community’s “arms” and have one more opportunity to start life with a hug.
The knitting circle has donated hundreds of these “welcome” kits which are given to every family at each of the hospitals. Then a new community crisis arose … COVID-19. Heidi Ramcke and her circle put their heads together and began asking health professionals “what do you need? what can we do?” When it became apparent that masks would be a critical item for the community, Heidi rallied her circle and began a new project – sewing masks for health professionals and other community volunteers in need.
In the first two weeks (or more) of the group’s sewing work, they have created more than 400 masks for our community. They continue to cut, sew, wash, and donate – all the while exploring new patterns and better masks designs to protect our essential health care professionals.
Donations to the Angels of Nick Ramcke Fund help with the cost of materials – both the current need of masks, the usual project of newborn baby gifts, and any future community priority need this gifted circle of crafters may learn of.
We applaud Heidi and her friends and neighbors for their deep commitment to our community, for sharing their gifts, and for ensuring that Nick’s love of community continues each and every day in the so many ways.
About Nick Ramcke: Nicholas Wallace Ramcke had a true photographer’s eye – an innate sense of the world around him and an ability to translate his view into a photograph. For Nick, photography was more than an art form or a possible profession; photography was Nick’s passion, a way to capture what he saw and the feelings it evoked and then share those emotions with his family and his community.
A graduate of Valley Regional High School (VRHS), Nick worked closely with the fine arts staff who supported his love of photography and encouraged him to pursue his artistic dreams. Unfortunately, a year after his graduation, Nick passed away. With Nick’s tragic death in 2011, his family struggled with their grief, wondering how to cope with the loss of
this bright and talented young man and what they could do in his memory that would make a difference in his community.
Nicke’s family worked with CFMC to create opportunities to share Nick’s legacy and love of community with Middlesex County. The first Fund they established, the Nicholas Ramcke Fund for the Creative Arts was supported by an annual skateboarding contest and provided an annual award to his fellow VRHS students who shared his love of photography. Since that time, new community needs have arisen and the Ishmans and Ramckes and their friends have come together to meet those needs, now through the Angels of Nick Ramcke Fund.