Drew's Cruisers

Zip With Us® is truly honored to announce our new program,  Drew’s Cruisers™, that is currently being piloted at Levine Children’s in North Carolina. After connecting with the incredible Slocum Family, it is a privilege to carry on the tradition Mandy Slocum started to honor her son Drew’s life by donating custom onesies to infants who have cancer and other life-threatening diseases and receive their treatments through central lines like Hickmans.

In 2013, Drew’s parents quickly realized that they could not fix his rare diagnosis of Infantile Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia at five and a half months old, but they could protect him by lowering his risk of unnecessary infection, accidental dislodgement, or unneeded surgery while keeping him comfortable in a cozy onesie. Drew’s Cruisers™ adapted onesies with an ingenious design to protect central lines and prevent them from hanging out the bottom of a baby’s onesie by keeping them securely wrapped around the baby’s back, tucked away in a velcro pocket. The addition of snaps up the side allow changing the onesie with ease, without having to de-access their lines while connecting to IV tubing.    

Drew’s Cruisers™ have been vital for little patients and their families, as testimonials sing their praises: “So amazing and so important for little ones to have their central line secure and out of the way!” and “My one-year-old can’t help but play with his line and before we received these, he had tugged too hard and it caused him a lot of pain and a chest x-ray to make sure he hadn’t pulled it out of place. Now he barely notices the line since it’s safely tucked around the back!”   

Drew’s Cruisers™ aligns perfectly with the Zip With Us® mission–to provide a free, custom ZipShirt™ to every childhood cancer patient with an access device implant in the United States–that now includes offering adapted baby onesies to protect central lines and keep babies comfortable while fighting the toughest battles. We are honored to keep Drew Slocum’s memory alive by helping families in a tangible way whose babies are forced to face a similar medical journey. 

- Shannon Kosaber