For 40 years, Karen Schade, 65, of Butler, planned and built advertising campaigns for companies like Johnson & Johnson and GlaxoSmithKline that reached audiences around the world. So, when it came time to retire in April 2022, she planned her volunteer activities as carefully as any of her successful global campaigns.

A “huge fan of kids,” she knew exactly how she wanted to spend her time in retirement.

Just a week after retiring, Schade started holding babies every Monday morning in the UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, a specialized unit for newborns who are born prematurely or have health problems. Since most parents are unable to be in the NICU with their babies 24 hours a day, the volunteers fill in for them.

“I always knew that I wanted to do so

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