Marshfield Area United Way is holding their Community Baby Shower starting today and running through May 30th.
I spoke with Sarah Chy, Resource and Development Director with Marshfield Area United Way, and explained the Community Baby Shower, where items can be dropped off, items that can be donated, and more.
Again, the Community Baby Shower is running now through May 30th and items can be dropped off at several locations.
(AI assisted transcription of the interview by Otter.ai):
Sarah: “The Community Baby Shower was kind of developed as we used to hold a diaper drive every year and a leadership Marshfield team actually picked it up a couple years ago and kind of reinvented it as the Community Baby Shower, recognizing that parents, while diapers are the primary need of many parents, they’re also items like baby wipes and hygiene products that they can also utilize and really use help with because there aren’t a lot of assistance programs that offer these items for families.”
“So, what the Leadership Marshfield Team learned is that nearly half of Americans with young children can’t afford diapers. The prices of diapers have actually increased 48% since the pandemic. So most parents end up spending somewhere between $800-$1,200 dollars a year per child in diapers.”
“So, I think a lot of people, like I have children who are 19 and 17, I’m a long way from diapers. You don’t realize how expensive they’ve gotten. So, this is really geared toward helping those families who are living paycheck to paycheck, and, you know, struggling to make ends meet.”
“These donations go to agencies here in our community that directly serve those families. So, we collect all these diapers and items in and then we redistribute them out to the Personal Development Center.” Soup or Sock has a diaper bank, Wood County Human Services, St. Vincent de Paul, and the Hannah Center, so that they can get those out into our community to families that need them.
Riley: “Can you highlight all of the different items that can be donated?”
Sarah: “So, the top needs for the community baby shower are really diapers of all sizes, especially sizes three and up. Those tend to get more expensive, especially as you get into pull ups, but there are a lot of families that really need those items.”
“Additionally baby wipes and then any kind of baby hygiene products, like baby shampoo, like bath items, and then, like towels and that kind of basic stuff, basically anything that’s a baby or a toddler, like needs, we’ll collect and will distribute out to those partners.”
Riley: “Can you name the drop off locations for these items?”
Sarah: “So, we have some really wonderful partners throughout our community, as everyone knowsd, and our drop off locations for the community baby shower include Associated bank, Christ Lutheran Church, Festival Foods, Forward Bank, Hawkins/Ash CPA., MACCI, North Shore Health at Marshfield, our office in Marshfield, Marshfield Medical Center Credit Union (and I hear they have a really cute little pack and play that you can put your items in” Next Home, Cub City, Nelson-Jameson, all three locations of Partners Bank, Simplicity Credit union, and Weinbrenner Shoe Company.
Riley: “Is there a way for people to just donate money if they just want to help in that way.”
Sarah: “Yeah, absolutely. We would gladly take monetary donations and what we would do is we actually have an account that we would put that in and then use that to purchase items that we don’t receive through the collection drive.”
“And then you can make that donation right on our website. It’s Marshfield area, United Way, dot, O, R, G, and then you can just click the red donate button, and in the notes when you’re making your donation, just note that you’d like it to go towards the community baby shower, and we’ll make sure it gets where it needs to go.”
Comments