Every Tuesday and Thursday, 73-year-old Dave Whitlow walks into the neonatal intensive care unit at Children's Hospital of Richmond at VCU with a simple mission: comfort the tiniest patients fighting their biggest battles. Whitlow is not a doctor or a nurse. He is a volunteer cuddler, and he has been doing it for eight years. On busy days, he holds up to eight babies — some weighing under 2 pounds. Have you ever volunteered your time at any hospital?

A retired local government manager with more than 40 years of experience, a father of 2 and grandfather of 3, Whitlow said the work in the NICU goes beyond the clinical. "But also the support and spiritual needs of the family and the staff, and so it all kind of gets tied together here," Whitlow said. Before he leaves each child, Whitlow whispers the same words: grow strong, grow smart, grow kind. "It's important to me to think that this is what I want from people in general," Whitlow said. It is a family he never expected — and now cannot imagine leaving.' Would you ever consider being a NICU Cuddler?