Local charity showers help on new moms
Struggling families with little support given clothing, toys, books and supplies to get them through baby's first year
Marta Gold, The Edmonton Journal
Published: 3:05 am
The inventory and store rooms at Basically Babies look about as unlike a charity depot as one could imagine. And that is exactly what its organizers want.
Row upon row of tiny, pristine, colour-co-ordinated clothes rackhang on tiny matching hangers, grouped according to size and season. Entire binsare filled with white patent-leather shoes, slippers or wee pairs of Christmas socks. Shelves are carefully stocked with new-looking stuffed animals, baby books and toys.
All have been washed, mended, ironed and painstakingly sorted, ultimately to end up in the hands of needy parents.
It is obsessive, but we take a lot of pride in the way we give a gift. If you give them cast-offs, they feel like cast-offs," says Shannon Stewart, a Sherwood Park business consultant and mother of four who started collecting and packing baby clothes rackfor charity with a few friends in her basement some 14 years ago.
That effort has grown into a small registered charity that will help about 300 families in need this year.
Volunteers at Basically Babies pack an entire layette for a baby's first year into a large, plastic laundryhamper.
Everything from undershirts and slippers to snowsuits and mittens are included.
Toiletries like shampoo and baby powder, as well as toys and books are also packed.
Between 80 and 100 items -- literally anything a baby would need in its first year of life, except diapers and formula, is in the hamper.
To buy the items new would cost more than $1,000, says Janet Wilson, the charity's executive director.
Not only is the package remarkably complete, it looks beautiful. The clothesare gently used or new and are packed in seven layers according to size and season, so a mom can work her way through the items as effortlessly as possible.
A baby born now would receive a winter layette, with one tiny snowsuit at the top to be worn now and another large one at the bottom for when he or she is almost a year old.
All are gender-specific and colour coordinated to maximize the number of matching outfits that can be created from one hamper.
Many have themes, for example, one boy's winter hamper is full of red, white and blue outfits, all with a sports theme.
Stewart and Wilson, who met at church more than 14 years ago, distribute their hampers anonymously through social workers and health-care workers at a variety of agencies around the Edmonton region.
Because their resources are limited, the charity seeks to help those most in need -- parents, most often single mothers, with little or no income, marketable skills, family support or spousal support.
Tammi Crowley, program supervisor for First Steps, a Catholic Social Services fetal alcohol prevention program, says a good 80 per cent of the young moms she works with have received hampers from clothesrack.
"One of the most important things is that the women feel a real sense of respect and pride," she said.
Many of the women she sees have addiction problems and few resources or supports that would provide things like baby showers. "This shows someone cares about their baby and for that they're really grateful."
