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The project offers a small measure of comfort and dignity to grieving parents, who receive the gowns free of charge.

Cassioppi, a self-taught seamstress and retired nurse who was looking for a volunteer opportunity from home as she now uses a wheelchair, learned about Angel Gowns through a friend and a Facebook group.

The organization she volunteers for, Real Imprints, accepts donated wedding gowns and asks donor to pay a $100 fee that supports its work that includes overseas missions in places like Kenya, the Philippines, and Guatemala.

One wedding dress yields about 12 gender-specific outfits. A full outfit typically includes a gown or suit, a bonnet, a pair of booties, and a small, coordinating memory keepsake, all sized for babies weighing under a pound up to eight pounds.

The keepsake is for parents to have as a reminder of the outfit their child was buried in.

"I try to make the keepsake so that it resembles the outfit," Cassioppi said. "So, it's a heart, or if it's a boy, it's like the shape of a little boy."

The entire process, from washing and preparing the wedding dress fabric to completing the baby items, can take up to 40 hours per wedding dress.

"This is all done voluntarily," Rosann notes. She says she’s happy to contribute to the cause quietly from her home.

The infant garments are donated directly to funeral homes, hospitals and support organizations, including those connected with neonatal intensive care units, both in the U.S. and internationally, with the understanding that the recipient organizations don’t charge the parents for the outfit. She said Real Imprints is continually seeking out recipient organizations that haven't yet heard of the Angel Gown project.

The volunteer work is deeply personal for Cassioppi, recognizing the unspeakable difficulty of parents having to shop for clothing in which to bury an infant – especially infants who were born too early and wouldn’t fit into any outfits available in a store. Β 

"This keeps them from having to go to a children's store to look for an outfit to bury their child in,” Cassioppi said, and seeing in the racks of infant clothing β€œwhat could have been.”

Cassioppi’s friend, Gary Hess, of Beloit, and his wife Darcy, recently made the significant decision to donate Darcy’s wedding dress. As they celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary, it was still securely boxed as it had been since their wedding day.

Cassioppi is now in the process of creating angel gowns from it.

Cassioppi, who also makes and donates cheerful wheelchair and walker bags for local rehab units, finds the work incredibly rewarding, despite the painful awareness of the deep grief parents are enduring.

Reflecting on her years as a nurse and her current volunteer role, she acknowledges a powerful throughline.

"It gives you some kind of meaning again. It makes you feel like you're doing something for somebody else," Cassioppi said.

The impact of the work of Real Imprints volunteers is reflected in the heartfelt testimonials from recipients and donors.Β 

On one Angel Gown website, parent and donor Danielle O. shared her tribute.

"To the amazing people who will give your time, talent and love to this project, I offer you my heartfelt gratitude,” she wrote. β€œIn honor of my daughter, my precious angel baby, Audrey Virginia, I am grateful for the opportunity to send you my treasured wedding dress that I wore almost 13 years ago when I married her father, Duane.”

β€œOur love is still growing strong and I hope the loving joyful energy in this dress, and the Angel Gowns that you make with it, will bring some solace, peace and comfort to the families who need one. With this dress, I send my wishes for love, kindness, peace, and happiness and healing to everyone who comes in contact with it."

More information on Real Imprints’ Angel Gowns project is at .