Not every baby comes into the world healthy or even wanted. Some are abandoned, and still others are born to substance-abusing women and arrive addicted to drugs or are HIV positive. Those difficult circumstances can be improved if someone helps the baby -- and sometimes the mother -- in time.

When the Georgia Institute of Technology women's basketball team learned about an organization that helped these children, team members were eager to help. The result of that help has been the development of a relationship between Georgia Tech and Project Prevent, an Atlanta-based program.

Project Prevent's goal is to prevent the abandonment and boarding of infants. It works with pregnant women who are substance abusers as well as with substance-abusing mothers whose infants are admitted to special-care nurseries. It provides prenatal care and assistance with drug treatment, as well as therapeutic counseling and case management.

The organization also operates My House, a place where abandoned, medically fragile or abused infants are boarded. These babies often are born with special medical problems at birth and have complex social situations at home that do not allow them to be discharged to their parents. Sometimes their mothers are drug addicts, and a shortage of foster families complicates matters.

Without intervention, these babies languish in sterile hospital settings that are expensive and lonely. My House provides a home-like environment for such babies to live until permanent plans are made for them. Volunteers and full-time staff members hold the babies, care for them, rock them and sing songs to them, helping to prompt development and normal emotional and physical growth.

"As soon as I read about My House and Project Prevent, I knew our team would want to get involved," said Georgia Tech women's basketball coach Agnus Berenato.

"At first the team thought what we were doing was a simple (basketball) clinic and toy drive. But once they had the chance to deliver the toys and hold the babies -- wow! They realized that they had truly done something special and

had touched the lives of many children."

Because the children at My House and Project Prevent are often without families or even foster parents to remember them at Christmas, Georgia Tech's first efforts were to make the holiday a bit happier.

The team held a toy drive at a December game, offering free admission to any fan who brought a new or used toy. Next, the team held a free basketball clinic for 270 girls and boys, encouraging the youngsters to bring a toy with them.

The team collected about $4,000 worth of toys for for the little residents of My House, a gift that was both unexpected and appreciated.

"The families and children that our programs serve are some of the neediest in the city of Atlanta," said Donna Carson, director of Project Prevent and My House. "And we are forever struggling to find toys for Christmas for the kids. Along comes the Georgia Tech women's basketball team and their toy drive, and we were able to make Christmas a wonderful one for more than 75 families."

When the student-athletes delivered the toys to My House, they had a chance to hold the children and realize what the organization is all about.

"The miracles that have been done in the lives of these children is remarkable," said Regina Tate, a junior forward. "Once you hold one child from (My House) and know the background of that child, no human could not be touched by the miracle of love of God being displayed through My House and all the volunteers."

Alex Stewart, a freshman guard, agreed. "It was very exciting to be able to hold the babies. It seemed like they were miracle babies, in their own little way," she said. "And they had all been through some kind of adversity in their lives already and yet none of them gave up. They kept fighting and that was the reason why they are alive now and doing well."

Tate and Stewart look forward to future volunteer opportunities and projects with My House and Project Prevent.

"I believe that community service is important because so many people look up to athletes. And we have an opportunity to give back," Tate said.

"I think it is very important to let (the people responsible for My House) know that there are those in our community who are supporting them in everything that they do," Stewart added.

And the Georgia Tech women's basketball team -- which has been irreversibly touched by the children of My House and project Prevent -- plans to do more, a plan that has the organization's leaders excited. There's certainly no shortage of lonely babies needing additional hands to hold and care for them. Who better than a student-athlete to help?

"(The team's) willingness to care about these kids, to visit with the babies who live at My house and to become involved with our program blends together their strength and vision with those who are in need of such a role model and friend," Carson said.

"We look forward to developing this relationship over the next year, and we are proud to be a part of the life of this team."