For World Kindness Day, a hospital dressed newborns in red cardigans like Mister Rogers

An infant dressed up in a red cardigan in honor of Pittsburgh's Cardigan Day. (Photo: Tanner Rose/Highmark Health)

To commemorate World Kindness Day, Pittsburgh’s West Penn Hospital has dressed infants in red cardigans — in the style of Pittsburgh hero Fred Rogers.

Public TV station WQED in Pittsburgh created a holiday called Cardigan Day, an offshoot of World Kindness Day, to commemorate Mister Rogers and his iconic get-up: a red cardigan and a tie.

Residents are encouraged to channel Mister Rogers and “express your kindness by showing off your cardigan and sharing it with the world,” according to WQED’s Cardigan Day event page.

Fred Rogers began his career as a children’s entertainer at WQED in 1954 with the show “The Children’s Corner,” and later returned to WQED in 1966 and created “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” two years later. At one point, his program was the longest-running children’s entertainment show in history — running for 33 years. 

A row of babies in bassinets, dressed up in red cardigans and ties as Mister Rogers. (Photo: Tanner Rose/Highmark Health)

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Rogers died in 2003 of stomach cancer.

“We wanted to join in the spirit of kindness with our most adorable ambassadors, our newborn babies,” said Stephanie Waite, a communications advisor at Allegheny Health Network in an email to USA TODAY.

This isn’t the first time the hospital has dressed up newborns, Waite explained, though this is the first time the hospital has commemorated Mister Rogers.

“We do these dress-ups a few times a year, for holidays and other special occasions,” she said.

Lucky for these new parents, the newborns get to keep their costumes when they leave the hospital.

Follow Joshua Bote on Twitter: @joshua_bote

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