The small room upstairs at St. Peter's Reformed Church in Zelienople looks almost like a compact discount store.

Bins and baskets along the walls hold candy, microwave popcorn, spiral notebooks, hairbrushes, toothpaste, disposable razors, cotton swabs, ponytail holders, insulated coffee mugs, playing cards, garbage bags -- and shampoo, which might be most important of all.

The room is home to Project Hope, a nonprofit founded to help parents of hospitalized children. Kim Sebring, 44, of Zelienople, began Project Hope in her living room about a year after her son, Tyler, not yet 8 years old, died of a heart condition in November 2003.

Project Hope distributes items parents might need if their children must stay at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh for an extended time. Some parents receive more than one tote bag over time.

"I hear a lot of times, 'How did you know what to put in these tote bags?' " Mrs. Sebring said. "Well, I've been there before. You haven't showered in a couple days and someone hands you shampoo -- oh yeah, right. Shampoo is really good to have. It helps you feel like a person again."

Tyler was diagnosed with idiopathic hypertrophic subaortic stenosis, a disease that causes thickening of the heart muscle, and had already received a heart transplant in infancy. His final hospital stay lasted four months. Too often in such times, she said, parents focus so much on their children they can forget to do basic things for themselves.

"If I did not take care of myself as a parent I couldn't give the best support to my child and take care of my child," she said. "You're so worried about your child's physical well-being you forget about your own."

The first time Mrs. Sebring collected items, she filled 20 tote bags. Now it's 60 every month. By January, Project Hope will have distributed 4,000 tote bags.

"The pastor here said, 'You can't do this in your living room,' " Mrs. Sebring said. "He said they'd find me space at the church."

Neither Mrs. Sebring nor her husband, Mark, is a member of St. Peter's. She had joined a mothers-of-preschoolers group there when Tyler was that age.

At first, the available space was a room shared with a Sunday-school teacher in a building next door. But as Pastor Jim Bertoti made plans to expand the church, he made sure to include a room for Project Hope.

"I'm pretty sure that's what Jesus would do if he were here -- you need space, I have space," the Rev. Bertoti said.

Once the bags are packed, Mrs. Sebring delivers them to the hospital, which distributes them to several departments for staff to give to families. Should Project Hope continue to grow, Mrs. Sebring would like to extend it to other hospitals.

"And also not just for children," she said. "But this is what we can do right now."

The mothers-of-preschoolers group indirectly gave Mrs. Sebring her first idea of what would become Project Hope.

"I was cleaning out a closet about a year after Tyler passed away," Mrs. Sebring said. "I found a basket from my mothers-of-preschoolers group, things they gave me to help us as we tried to help Tyler. That was the spark. I guess I just felt called to do something."

That was in 2004. In 2006, Project Hope incorporated as a nonprofit. The next year, the Internal Revenue Service approved the group for 501(c)3 status.

As Project Hope grew, DeeAnn Graham was always there to help. Tyler was in first grade at Connoquenessing Valley Elementary School when he entered the hospital for the last time. Then an instructional facilitator, helping parents and teachers meet and work through any issues they had, Ms. Graham is now the school's principal.

"We have had many situations in the building with students who were ill," she said. "And as teachers, we get so close to our students."

She puts out a notice to students and parents asking them to help collect items for the tote bags and seeks monetary donations, usually once a year. Students spent time Friday packing the tote bags.

Teachers at the school also try to have conversations with the students about why they do this, Ms Graham said.

"Just that it's a small gesture of kindness and care and how far that goes," she said. This year, for the first time, students also wrote notes to families receiving the bags.

"You should see them," the principal said. "They're so sweet."

She also noted that Tyler's brother, 7-year-old Thomas, and one of his two sisters, 10-year-old Megan, now attend the school. Another sister, Marygrace, just turned 2.

"It's so important to keep them involved as well," Ms. Graham said. "It's our goal to help children, and this is a very special way to do that."

Mrs. Sebring said at first it was good to have distance from the families receiving the tote bags.

"I don't know that I could have handled being around families in that situation -- not at first," she said. But doing something for them, however small, helped her, too.

"I'll tell you, it's been really healing," she said. "It helped us a lot in dealing with our grief. It's been nice to turn that into something positive."