“I have always been service oriented. It was part of our family,” she said. “My mom grew up with it. My grandfather always served. It’s just part of our family matrix. I never thought I should be doing this. I just did it.”

For one of her Primary class projects, she learned to crochet and knit. Daniels’ sister started going first, and the teacher, who lived next door, invited Daniels to attend. Some older neighbors helped her learn even more about crocheting. Soon, it just became a part of who she was.

“Now, I just crochet when I come home from work. It helps me wind down, especially after being on call 24/7,” she said. “I have crocheted around thousands of baby blankets.”

Her penchant to crochet and knit has turned into a nonprofit that provides blankets, quilts, knitted hats, scarves, socks and other items to those in need, particularly children who take a life flight trip because of a variety of health reasons.

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Daniels works for Intermountain Health in Provo as a vascular interventional radiology technician and is in and out of intensive care units. She associates with nurses and other personnel who fly for Intermountain Health’s Life Flight.

Daniels supplied several baby blankets to a doctor and his wife who were volunteering in China. When she was waiting in the hall to give the blankets to the them, two nurse friends stopped and asked her what she had. After seeing the blankets and hearing what she was doing, one of them said, “We need to give these to the children who are on the life flights. Let’s figure this out.”

Lori McBride was one of those nurses. She is currently the children’s services nurse manager at Intermountain’s Life Flight and a board member for Covered with Love, Daniels’ nonprofit organization. She became acquainted with Daniels in 2012 when she was a fairly new pediatric nurse for life flight. Daniels approached her about whether any of their patients needed a blanket.

“I knew there was a great need. Initially, I was just a venue for the blankets to get delivered,” she said. “We took them to our sites, and our outreach people gave them to local ERs to give to those children most in need.”

Daniels started giving out the blankets to the life flight personnel in the fall of 2013.

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“We weren’t organized very well at the beginning,” Daniels said. “It wasn’t until 2016 when I decided to create a nonprofit to do more than what we were doing. Michael, one of the life flight nurses, calculated the number of life flight kids, which was a huge number. Then, he came up with our nonprofit’s name of Covered with Love.”

Normally, the flight teams pick up sick children and transport them where they need to go. It was McBride who pointed out the need in the various areas in Utah and even beyond. Many of the blankets are given to the flight team when they go and pick up children. If they make long flights, they grab blankets and take them to where they are going.

To help with the distribution, the life flight PR person puts the blankets in Ziploc baggies and then travels to several referring hospitals. The blankets have become part of the life flight overall package. Many of the blankets are delivered to hospitals so they will be prepared to hand out blankets when they are needed. All blankets are packed according to the age of the children.

“We make blankets that are appropriate for children with various designs that children like,” Daniels said. “We deliver these blankets to all of the hospitals ahead of time so they have them.”

Since 2016, Covered with Love has delivered more than 23,000 blankets and quilts to many different health care facilities throughout Utah. Often, paramedics or nurses from other communities have completed shifts at Intermountain Health and seen the blankets that were available to be transported throughout the states. They stop and ask if they can take some to their hospitals and clinics.

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While Daniels started by herself, many other people have stepped in to help, including local community, religious and school groups. For example, Maple Mountain High School students started a service club and began tying blankets to be delivered.

Daniels has a sister who lives in West Jordan who connected with Copper Hills High School. The Honor Society there tied quilts as a project to help out. Other youth groups have also pitched in. Before some young women’s summer camps, they contact Covered with Love and ask if they have blankets they can tie for their camp service projects.

“Through various means, we find each other and try to make the world a better place,” Daniels said. “One of us cannot do it by ourselves. Most teens want to join in doing service.”

Covered with Love does not seek attention. They make blankets and then make sure those blankets are placed where they are most needed. Sometimes they hear from the people who received them and are thanked for the blankets. Daniels’ father, who lives in Wyoming, once encountered a blanket recipient.

“My dad checks the church every night to make sure it is locked,” Daniels said. “One evening, he encountered two sister missionaries. One was from Lehi, Utah, and had a fleece-type blanket. When he asked her about it, she told him she had had health issues when she was a child and someone brought her a blanket, which became her security blanket. That was one of Covered with Love’s blankets.”

Covered with Love has also sent many items outside of the United States. While a young African woman, Emelie, was attending nursing school, she completed her clinicals at Intermountain Health and became friends with Daniels. Ultimately, this woman became a nurse and returned to her native Chad where she runs a medical clinic. Covered with Love has sent a variety of items to her, including receiving baby blankets, newborn kits, crocheted baby hats and burp cloths.

Daniels cannot go anywhere without someone asking about what she does with the material she buys or the blankets she has in her hands. One group found her at a fabric store with several carts full of material.

“The group was amazed at the amount of material I was buying and asked me what I was doing with all that material,” Daniels said. “When I told them about the blankets we made for the children, they instantly wanted to help.”

One of the many projects that Daniels works on happens just before Christmas each year. Covered with Love provides hundreds of hats, scarves, blankets, socks and other supplies to a Title I school in Utah where they are desperately needed.

According to McBride, “Cristy is the heart, soul, light, energy and entire passion for this. She is a wonder of nature. We just get to support her in doing all the great things.”

People find out what Covered with Love is doing. Someone hears about a neighbor or family member living in a different area of Utah who received a blanket. Then the network of people and needs keeps expanding. Most referrals comes from word of mouth and the people Daniels works with at Intermountain Health.

“Once people find out what you are doing, they want to help in some way,” Daniels said. “We mostly try to keep it small. We can get into places while quietly doing what we do. Nurses volunteer and take blankets to women’s shelters and other places.”

Daniels does not seek recognition. McBride, Michael and she are just three friends working together to make things happen. Recently, though, someone nominated Daniels and Cover with Love for an award. In December 2025, she received the Intermountain “I Act” and the Power of Utah Hearts and Hands Award in Salt Lake City. McBride attended the event with her.

“It was gratifying to go with her when she received this award,” McBride said. “She didn’t think it was a big deal, but it was. Cristy fills an important niche and is making a tremendous difference. We basically started with the attitude that ‘it would be cool to give out blankets to the kids.’ It literally has just grown to something bigger and better.”

Covered with Love was born out of heart and passion to serve people with a need. Daniels will continue to find ways and places to serve. Right now, one of her bedrooms in her home is full of blankets to be delivered.

“I want to do more,” Daniels said. “We started slowly, and it has just mushroomed like an atomic bomb cloud. It began because I couldn’t sleep after I came home from long shifts at the hospital. Overtime pay goes to buying more materials. Families donate their grandmothers’ material stash, and people hand me money while I wait in line with my many carts full of fabric at the fabric store.”

Covered with Love does not see what they are doing as amazing. To Daniels, what is important is looking at your skills and resources and then sharing them with others.

“It’s not like any one person is more important than another. Anyone near a hospital can make a blanket and take it there,” Daniels said. “So many hospitals and other groups that serve children need something. Just contact your local hospital and ask them what they need. It is a simple task. People need to understand that I am not doing anything spectacular. The beauty of what we are doing is that anyone can do it.”

If you would like to contact, help or donate to Covered with Love, call Cristy Daniels at 801-636-2862 or send an email to cristykdaniels@gmail.com.