Meet Mariah, Katelyn, and Chamika: Three moms, each with different stories, but one thing that connects them is the need for diapers for their baby. (Watch on Vimeo: Let Good Grow full cut).
SF Bay Area: Join Us at KidsBash, June 30th
We’re proud to be the official charity partner at the 3rd Annual Ghirardelli Square KidsBash. The event is a great opportunity to bring the kids, and extend an invite to your play group to join you for train rides, bounce house, face painting, and event special appearance by Hello Kitty.
Ghirardelli Square invites you and your family to join us for a Street Festival that is just for the kids! The 3rd Annual KidsBash, presented by Plum Organics has all of the perfect activities for every family’s youngest members. Tickets include access to all rides, games, and entertainment during the event and only need to be purchased for the children in your family, adults are free! The event is geared for children 10 years old and younger. Come for train rides, a rock wall, jump in the bounce house, play games with prizes, Zumbatomic demos, a special visit from the SFFD and much, much more.
This year, Ghirardelli Square KidsBash has partnered with Help A Mother Out, a Bay Area-based, nationally-recognized grassroots organization that raises and distributes diapers to homeless and low income families.
DISCOUNT: 25% discount for HAMO friends (tickets online are normally $20 per child, $15 with the HAMO discount (adults are free). Use CODE HAMO15 when registering through EventBrite.
CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS: We need 20 volunteers to help us with will call, ticket sales, children’s activities, and at the HAMO booth (two shifts available 10:30am – 1:30pm and 1:30pm-4:30pm).
Volunteer perks include: discounted special event parking, plus two (2) free event tickets for your kids, and you get to be part of the HAMO crew! Interested? Please fill out our volunteer form. We also love groups and volunteer buddies, so please help us spread the word.
@Momversation Contest & Diaper Drive
We were honored to have our friends and High Tea Presenting Sponsor Momversation attend our 2nd Annual Benefit Tea on May 6th. The Momversation crew came up from Santa Monica to enjoy the day with us and raise much needed funds to help us continue the work bring diapers to moms in need. We are so incredibly grateful to Momversation for helping us continue our work!
To celebrate their website re-launch they are hosting a sweepstakes for the Ultimate Time Out (Big prize is a spa getaway in San Francisco!) as well as a virtual diaper drive (Goal of 10K DIAPERS!) for Help a Mother Out.
Please watch this short video about the contest, enter to win, and spread the word.
Real Stories: Katelyn
We were recently honored to interview three inspiring moms whose lives were changed by the gift of diapers. This is Katelyn’s story:
New Drop Bin Locations!
Just in time for our Mother’s Day Call To Action – we have two new drop bin locations in the Los Angeles area and one in the Bay Area. At all three locations they will now proudly accept your donations of diapers – in new unopened or opened packages – and wipes in our big old drop bin.
Los Angeles
Books and Cookies
2230 Main Street
Santa Monica, CA 90405
(424) 238-5752
http://booksandcookiesla.com/
—
Zookies
4510 Forman Avenue
Toluca Lake, CA
(818) 404-9185
Zookies on Facebook
—
Bay Area
Recess {Donate through May 31st}
470 Carolina Street
San Francisco, CA 94107
(415) 701-7529
http://recessurbanrecreation.com/Recess_Urban_Recreation/welcome.html
Here is a list of what we accept and all the other ways and places to help.
Who We Serve
Since inception we’ve distributed diapers to a number of organizations in California and elsewhere in the U.S. Between January, 2011 and January, 2012 we served families through the following agencies. Thank you to everyone who contributed to making this happen! Special thanks go to our friends at Huggies Every Little Bottom and St. Vincent de Paul of Alameda County.
Southern California
- Ascencia (LA County)
- Building a Generation (Inland Empire)
- LA Diaper Drive (LA County)
- Salvation Army,East Los Angeles Community Center (LA County)
- Bayside Community Center (San Diego County)
Northern California
Alameda & Contra Costa Counties
- Brighter Beginnings
- Center for the Vulnerable Child (Children’s Hospital of Oakland)
- Oakland Early Head Start
- St. Vincent de Paul of Alameda County (West Oakland Women’s Center)
- Operation Shower
- Prenatal Care Guidance (PCG), a program of the Contra Costa Public Health Dept.
- Women’s Daytime Drop-in Center (WDDC)
Monterey County
- Monterey County Association of Families Caring for Children
San Francisco County
- Homeless Prenatal Program (HPP)
- Bayview Mission
- APA Family Support Services (APA)
San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties
- Baby Basics of the Peninsula
- Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford (Social Services)
- Star Vista (formerly YFES)
- Creation Home Ministries
- West Valley Community Services
- City Team Ministries, San Jose
- EHC Lifebuilders
Stanislaus County Community Diaper Drive
We’re all about spreading diaper love. Do you know anyone who lives in Stanislaus County? Local mom Robi-Ann is hosting a diaper drive this Saturday and needs your help spreading the word to locals.
Stanislaus County Community Diaper Drive:
Location: 320 9th Street (corner of 9th & D streets) Modesto, CA 95351
Date: December 10th, 2011
Time: 9am-3pm
****
My name is Robi-Ann Doyle, and I’m currently a graduate student at California State University, Stanislaus in the Master’s of Social Work program. I was a Bay Area resident from 1995-2003, and I’m an alumi of San Francisco State University as well. I’m hosting a community diaper drive as part of my graduate program completion. My graduate department requires that students either write a Master’s thesis, or produce a graduate project. I developed the project and proposed it to the CSU Review Board, who accepted my proposal. As this is my first time organizing a community event, I have limited this drive to a one-day event on December 10th, 2011. I’m partnering with the Modesto Salvation Army, who has donated their space as a drop-off location for the drive. I’ve been working on promotion for the last two weeks.
I’m also a new mother; my son is 13 months old. After having my son, I started to appreciate the struggles mothers and caretakers go through to support their children. I also started researching the issue of diaper need, and decided that it was a cause I wanted to support. I’m excited to host this diaper drive as I believe it is the first of it’s kind in Stanislaus County. We do not have a diaper bank here, and my future goal is to continue hosting diaper drives, in the hopes that I may one day receive a grant to start a diaper bank in Stanislaus County.
Viviana’s Story
“Viviana was too ashamed to drop her child off to daycare without diapers, therefore would have missed school to remain home with her child. Thank goodness for Help A Mother Out, the Family Advocate was able to make an emergency drop-off to Viviana. She didn’t have to miss school and was able to take her child to daycare with clean diapers.”
With your help, moms like Viviana are on the road to self sufficiency. Please consider sending a message of hope to our families with your gift today. In doing so you’re joining the HAMO family, working to sustain a much needed safety net in the year to come. Thank you for your generosity and commitment to our families.
Natural Resources Needs Our Help
Update 12/9/11: Congrats to NR for reaching their fundraising goal! If you are in the San Francisco area, please be sure to support this amazing community resource and business in the years to come.
Dear HAMO friends, this morning I received an email from Cara, owner of Natural Resources. NR serves as one of our flagship dropbin locations. Many of us on the team have benefited from NR serving as a community resource and store for new parents. It’s a mom-owned and powered independent enterprise that serves the community in countless ways. Cara and NR need our help now. The business has been suffering from the effects of the economy and this San Francisco parenting institution is in danger of closing it’s doors.
Please join HAMO in supporting Natural Resources. If they close, our community will lose a tremendous asset. The HAMO family is contributing $100 of our unrestricted foundation grant funds to help keep NR’s doors open. We rely on NR to help us serve both San Francisco mothers who want to donate their extra diapers, as well as the struggling mothers who benefit from receiving these critical supplies.
If you have ever benefited from NR – whether by a parenting group, birth education, stopped at the store to change your baby’s diapers, please consider matching our contribution with $10 -$100, or anything that you can spare. Make a gift here.
Untitled from Anamorphic Productions on Vimeo.
Cara’s letter:
Dear Friends,
Natural Resources has been serving parents of all walks of life, from pregnancy through early parenting, for almost 25 years. We’ve shared many joys with our customers, first smiles, first laughs, first steps, first words. We’ve had women stop in while in early labor so we can embrace their excitement of what is to come. We get to congratulate partners and grandparents coming in shortly after birth with lists of “Oops, we realize we also need….” Often a mother’s first trip out with her baby is to Natural Resources where she knows she will be welcomed and supported while she nurses in a comfortable glider. Over the years, we’ve been part of so many heartwarming and memorable experiences.
Natural Resources has been mother owned since the very beginning when two women rented a small storefront in the Noe Valley district of San Francisco and began running classes and providing resources and support for parents, offering information that was not readily available at the time. As a mother myself, I took on the business when my oldest daughter was 7 months old. I was attracted to running Natural Resources because of my own experience during my pregnancy. I was fortunate enough to have an angel of a doula who educated me about my changing body, my growing baby, and my birth choices in the city. I went on to take classes at Natural Resources to gain more knowledge and had the most glorious and positive birth experience I could have ever asked for. What a life changer!
When I found out NR was for sale, I was excited at the opportunity of being able to offer the education and support I received during pregnancy to an entire community of people. In all honesty I had no idea what I was in for, but I put everything I had into it with my daughter by my side. And the business grew and grew. We expanded our product line always keeping in mind items that are natural, organic, eco-friendly and often locally made. We went from a 900 square foot store with a handful of classes to a 2500 square foot building with 3 times the number of class offerings. Classes we offer include childbirth preparation, newborn parenting, breastfeeding, mother/baby support groups, father support groups, infant massage, introducing solids, and baby signing.
Since the downturn of the economy, Natural Resources has been struggling but surviving. We have always been fortunate to have a supportive and loyal customer base – we truly have the loveliest customers. Unfortunately the last year and especially the last few months, things have taken a turn for the worse. The cash is just not there to keep up with inventory. Many times a day we have to turn people away because we are out of stock of the items they need. It is important to have diapers and wipes as well as the right sized bra for the new nursing mother. Equally important are our classes, workshops, professional trainings and support groups. Our educators and facilitators bring an impressive level of quality and professionalism to each and every class. We want our educational offerings to continue to thrive while we also provide the items our customers need.
Why IndieGoGo?
This has been an incredibly difficult decision for me. At this point, I have tried everything I could think of to keep Natural Resources going and nothing has worked out as planned. Time is now running out. Therefore, I have decided to ask our community for help. The amount I am asking for is the minimum we need to keep Natural Resources open. Because of this, all funds will be returned if the goal is not reached.
With your support we will be able to do the following:
- restock the store with our carefully chosen and unique products with a special focus on the most requested, most necessary and practical items needed for pregnancy, birth and parenting such as nursing bras, baby carriers, layette clothing, breastpumps and breastfeeding supplies, and discounted maternity clothes from Maternity Xchange
- redesign the classroom space with more comfortable seating and an even cozier atmosphere
- expand our educational and support options, offering the classes, groups and workshops our parents want most
We have drastically reduced our expenses and will continue to keep them very low as we pull out of this rut. Going forward, we will be focusing on the products and services that we know bring in reliable revenue. As always, we will continue to be a safe haven, a home away from home, a place to hang out, feed and change your baby, have some tea and snacks, meet other parents, cry, share, boast, laugh. A place to build your community.
If you or anyone you know has benefited from our organization, whether 20 days ago or 20 years ago, please consider helping us. Your contributions will be the foundation for Natural Resources to continue to support families for many years to come. If everyone on our email list donates just $10 we will reach our goal and we are offering special perks to thank you for your contribution. We understand that some of you may not be able to directly benefit from some of our perks. If this is so, you have the option of gifting your perk to one person (family member, friend, client…) or we can donate it to the Homeless Prenatal Program in San Francisco (http://www.homelessprenatal.org) where your gift will go to a low-income pregnant mama.
Other Ways You Can Help
Share this campaign with your friends and family. Whether you post a link on Facebook or Twitter, or send an email to your community, we’d love for you to help us spread the word. You can also click onto our comments tab to give us feedback!
We greatly appreciate anything that you can offer. We look forward to sharing many more joys with our community of families.
With much gratitude,
Cara Vidano and the Natural Resources family
Please Read: Leave it to the Big O, aka my Oprah story
A mother whose child did not yet have medical insurance had to use the last of her money to pay for medicine. This left her without money for diapers so we gave her a few days supply. Those diapers made all the difference.
~ Peggy, Social Worker
Dear Friends,
Before I co-founded Help A Mother Out (HAMO) I was a stay at home mom, focused on raising my two young children (then ages 9 months and 3 years old). I remember poring over countless parenting books and blogs, and fretting about whether my kids were getting enough sleep, nutrition, and intellectually stimulating experiences. And while I wasn’t keenly aware of it then, I now know that my husband and I are extremely blessed to be able to provide the most basic needs for our kids.
On a day in February 2009, after viewing the Oprah Winfrey show about how the Great Recession was impacting struggling families, I knew I had to do something to help. My first thought was to host a children’s clothing drive, but after reaching out to a handful of social service agencies, I learned about diaper need. The thought of a young child spending the entire day in the same diaper just broke my heart. I quickly learned that reliable access to diapers is the cornerstone for healthy babies, healthy communities, and a family’s ability to thrive.
Everyday I am grateful that HAMO gets to do something about this problem. Everyday I am in awe that a home grown project with a start up investment of $100, could help so many struggling families, as well as inspire action in many others (including many of you!). Together we have done a lot of good. Nearly 750K diapers have been distributed through our network of partners, including homeless centers, family resource centers, public health departments, and food pantries. Equally important, we have raised awareness and advocated for needy families. And, we’ve accomplished all of this on a tiny budget.
We are proud of our accomplishments, but the truth is our organization has a lot of work ahead of us. Our vision is a day when every baby has an adequate supply of diapers, and for every agency we have been able to help, we have had to turn two away due to lack of resources. Advocating for and getting diapers to families in need takes real financial resources. We are inviting you to “adopt” Help A Mother Out this holiday season.
For us to do our crucial work we need funds to pay for general operating and program expenses. You may think that your gift of $30, $50, $100, or any amount that is meaningful to you, may be just a drop in the bucket, but in reality, your help is actually what makes this whole operation possible. Since we started Help A Mother Out, 85-percent of monetary gifts collected have come from individuals like you.
Thank you for helping us to help more mothers, children, and caregivers in 2012.
Wishing you and your family peace, joy and abundance,
Lisa Truong, co-founder, executive director
On behalf of the entire Help A Mother Out family and network
p.s. We are pleased and very grateful to announce between November and December 31st, our friends at Huggies Every Little Bottom will match your monetary gift for unrestricted funds, with an in kind diaper donation – up to 300K diapers. Your timing doesn’t get any better to help.Thank you for your generosity and believing in our work.
September Super Friend: Meet Xavier The XMan
Meet Xavier The X-Man, our September Super Friend. Xavier and his family have been HAMO supporters since we first started bugging our personal contacts on Facebook, back in the spring of 2009. Among countless and invaluable ways, Xavier has hosted several fundraisers and even gave a HAMO interview on the air, helping us to advocate and support our San Diego area families. Thank you, Xavier, for your continued support and playing the best old school on the airwaves.
When did you first learn about diaper need?
From my wife. She came to me really impassioned about this organization co-founded by one of her friends from high school. We had recently and thankfully finished potty training our son and were well aware of the cost associated with diapering a baby. I do my best to serve our communities through various non-profit agencies and this was one that my wife supported so of course, I was on board.
What is your favorite activity to do with your kids?
Working on our lowriders. I’m a lowrider guy. My son is at an age that he has taken a real interest in helping daddy with the cars. He takes it very seriously. I am also teaching him chess, we really like doing that together.
What is *the best* thing about being a dad?
Just having the honor to witness this little guy grow up and become his own person. To be able to love and guide him, I’ll tell you, there is nothing better!
Hobbies?
Lowriding, golfing (although I haven’t played in a long time), spending time with the family with a nice backyard carne asada bbq and listening to oldies.
Favorite quote?
“Yesterday seemed so long ago, and tomorrow was too far away. It was Today that I lived for aimlessly, This Hour, This Moment.” –Carlos Bulosan, Filipino-American Author
You can find Xavier on his website, and be sure to follow him on Twitter!
San Bruno Fire Diaper & Clothing Drive Has ENDED
Updated 9.14.10 8:30am PST: Here is a list of our recommendations of where to donate your clothing to. These organizations, among many others, work to end poverty and family homelessness everyday.
We want to thank you all for supporting our donation drive on behalf of families affected by the San Bruno Fire. Over the weekend our donation locations received a tremendous amount of traffic and bulk in-kind donations. It was such a success that we’ve exceeded our capacity to accept in kind donations on behalf of victims of the San Bruno Fire.
We will continue to accept ongoing diaper and pull up donations for our diaper bank at all of our drop locations. We regret are no longer able to accept clothing and other items.
The Bay Area Red Cross, the City of San Bruno, and local churches all state they no longer need in-kind donations, and are requesting monetary donations. If you would like to make a donation on behalf of the victims of the San Bruno, we recommend you send your monetary donation, payable to:
San Pablo Lions Club, PO Box 242, San Bruno, CA 94066, (reference “fire” on check) — 100% of the funds will go to victims this way.
We are currently researching the most direct and effective distribution channel in order to allocate donations to offer to families affected by the San Bruno Fire. We share many of our supporters’ concerns about donations getting “mixed up” with regular donations, and possibly being sold in the end. Please be assured we are doing everything within our power to ensure this does not happen.
Currently, there is no shortage of people in need in the Bay Area, including San Mateo and San Francisco counties, on an ongoing basis. While a major disaster like the San Bruno fire is often a catalyst for donating, we hope you will consider giving on an ongoing basis – i.e. most homeless families experience loss of devastating magnitude without a manmade or natural disaster occurring. Likewise, many of the families we assist through our partner agencies lack an adequate supply of diapers on a daily basis.
Our plan is to allocate donations in-excess to our immediate partner agencies in San Mateo and San Francisco counties, including agencies like Shelter Network, Homeless Prenatal Program, andBayview Mission. All of our partner agencies offer their services and basic needs supplies free of charge to their clients.
Together with Bayview Mission, HAMO responded to the San Bruno disaster by bringing a donation of 6000 diapers, plus hundreds of other supplies to the San Bruno Recreation Center the morning after the fire, on Friday, September 10, 2010. We were able to address this need because we had the diapers in stock, thanks to the generosity of individual and corporate donors.
On behalf of the HAMO community, we want to thank you for your ongoing generosity to bring diapers to families who really need them. We hope that you’ll keep in touch with us by becoming a friend on Facebook, and/or following us on Twitter.
Thank you to our drop bin partners, Natural Resources, Junior Gym, and Cubes and Crayons for supporting this drive. Please check them out and support local family friendly business!
What I’m Doing With My #BlogHer11 Swag #hamo
Are we friends yet? We’d be delighted for you to join us on Facebook.
There is always so much a do about The Swag at #BlogHer. Some of it really swell and useful, others conjure up the thought “what were they smoking when they came up with this idea?” I’m not naming brands here, but if you’ve been on the expo floor, you know what I’m talking about.
Being in this line of work makes you think a lot about “stuff.” The haves and the have nots, and the incredible amount of stuff that is present at a conference where brands are trying their darnedest to grab the attention of highly influential household decision makers (go women!). Kudos to the folks behind BlogHer whose efforts to reduce waste are commendable.
The Sunday after the conference I went through all the swag I procured. I was judicious with what I accepted at the expo hall, really keeping an eye on practical everyday items. Being someone who did not attend many of the private parties, my guess is that I hadn’t accumulated much stuff compared to other conference attendees.
Anyways, the only thing I ended up wanting to save for my household was a children’s dvd for the kids. The rest of the stuff I decided to take home to donate to a partner agency.
Here’s the swag I’m donating this week:
- (30) reusable shopper bags – thanks to the BlogHer swag exchange, these will go to homeless moms, many of whom had to leave their homes with only the clothes on their backs. You cannot see all 30 bags as they are stuffed into other bags.
- (2) pairs of flip flops – great to wear in shower at the homeless shelter
- (3) notepads + pens – useful to write down appointments and information
- (1) box of mints – portable personal hygiene
- (2) pocket mirrors – portable personal hygiene
- (1) large nail buffer/file – portable personal hygiene
- (1) coupon for a free item at Micky D’s
- (1) coupon for a free bag of chips
- (1) sample of breakfast cereal
- (1) pouch of baby food – convenient on the go, healthy food
- (2) canisters of black tea – homeless shelter kitchen
- (1) t shirt
- (2) tubes of lotion – portable personal hygiene
- (2) tubes of toothpaste – portable personal hygiene
- (2) travel sized child’s herbal cold and cough medicine – portable medicine
- (2) packs of salt water taffy – just in time for Halloween festivities at the homeless center
- (2) travel shampoos and lotions (not pictured) – incredibly useful to families in transition
Our partner agency will pick up these items along with their normal diaper delivery, which makes me really happy that I lugged all this swag home. It was really fun thinking about swag in terms of what I could donate and if it would be useful to the families we serve.
Will you join me next year?
Thank You: Southern Marin Mother’s Club
A few weeks ago HAMO was invited to attend the Southern Marin Mother’s Club annual bbq. It was a lovely, down home, carnival-themed affair. They had a clown, cotton candy, airbrush tattoos, and the requisite jumpy house.
Cool tie-in with their diaper drive?
Dunk tank.
For every diaper or monetary donation to HAMO, attendees (many of them children) got a ticket for a chance to dunk one of the club’s board members in the dunk tank! It was just a fun activity, probably not for the dunkeee, but still. How cool was that?
Special thanks to Molly and Adrienne of SMMC for all of their efforts to include HAMO in this wonderful event. In the end SMMC collected 1,324 diapers + 2000 wipes + diapering funds. We were honored to share the afternoon with you all!
Are we friends yet? We hope you will join us over on Facebook!
August’s Facebook Super Friend – Meet Sara
When did you first learn about diaper need?
My mom showed me an article in the San Jose Mercury news shortly after I had my daughter highlighting the need for diapers and mentioning HAMO. I reached out to HAMO and held my first holiday diaper drive in December 2009.
What is your favorite activity to do with your kids?
Go on walks and read stories.
What is *the best* thing about being a mom?
Hearing my daughter say I love you.
Hobbies?
Spending time with my friends and family and working out.
Favorite quote
“The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.” Vince Lombardi
SoCal: #BlogHer11 Virtual Diaper Drive #hamo
This coming week some of the team will be at BlogHer ’11.
In case you haven’t heard, we’re hosting a service project to coincide with the conference, in hopes of raising much needed diaper funds we’d like to raise to benefit our Southern California families. Specifically, we have three agencies located in San Diego, Inland Empire, and east Los Angeles, who are currently on the waiting list to receive diapers.
Whether you are attending the conference or not, you can help us make a difference.
Bonus: We’re giving away an iPad, generously donated by our friends at Momversation, to one lucky online donor. And as of this writing, your chances look really good to win!
How you can help:
Spread the word about our virtual diaper drive. Official rules and more good stuff can be found via our event page.
Your online gift of $10 or more enters you to our iPad giveaway contest. Go ahead, click the BLUE button and help a mother out!
July’s Facebook Super Friend – Meet Wendy
We interrupt our normally scheduled programming to bring you something shiny and new we are trying on. Enter, HAMO’s Facebook Super Friend.
We’ve got some super awesome supporters on Facebook and figured it’s high time to acknowledge how just how special we think you all are.
Meet Wendy of Wendolonia, our inaugural Facebook Super Friend:
1) When did you first learn about diaper need?
I first read about diaper need on the Rookie Moms blog when my friend Whitney wrote about HAMO and holding a diaper drive. My youngest was an infant at the time and had just moved up to a bigger diaper size, so I donated the rest of the smaller diapers that we had in the house along with a new pack that I picked up for donation. After I gave Whitney the diapers, I couldn’t stop thinking about how awful I’d feel if I didn’t have enough diapers for my little boy and I knew I needed to get involved. I held a diaper drive via my blog a few weeks later and I’ve been pitching in with HAMO whenever I can since then.
2) What is your favorite activity to do with your kids?
I love sitting at the kitchen table and drawing pictures with them. We all inspire each other and it’s fun to see their skills grow from month to month.
3) What is *the best* thing about being a mom?
I really love watching my kids learn things and seeing their personalities develop. There is always a new surprise around the corner.
4) What are your hobbies?
Oh man — I have a lot of hobbies! I’ll try almost any craft once or twice, but some of the things I’m currently doing include decorative bento box lunches, scrapbooking, cooking, baking, and canning. I also read a lot of magazine and play a lot of Angry Birds.
5) What’s your favorite quote?
I can’t say I really have a favorite quote, but this one from Amy Poehler struck a chord with me recently:
“I get worried for young girls sometimes; I want them to feel that they can be sassy and full and weird and geeky and smart and independent, and not so withered and shriveled.”
—Amy Poehler in an interview for Bust Magazine
Thanks Wendy for being a super hero to our cause!
Wanna be a Super Friend? It’s easy:
1) Join our Facebook friends’ page
2) Post comments and/or like stuff on our page
3) Email info (AT) helpamotherout (DOT) org with your name, website (if applicable), photo (if you have kids, with or without them), and answers to the five questions above. You can also nominate a Super Friend!
First Birthdays #payitforward #hamo
Are we friends? We’d love to see you over on Facebook.
I’m a little belated in posting this, but it’s so freaking cute and inspiring that I hope you all can forgive me.
During our Mother’s Day fundraising drive, an East Bay group of new moms (of which Kindercyclemom Jennifer is part of) decided they wanted to something really meaningful to honor their babies’ First Birthdays. Moms group #311 of the Support Group for Mothers had all their babies turning ONE within a few months of May. In lieu of the requisite birthday gifts for each other’s children, each of the families made a $50 gift to Help a Mother Out to honor the babies.
Their simple gesture of paying it forward, yielded a collective gift of $500! That’s a little more than half a year’s supply of diapers for one baby.
It may not seem like much to larger non profits, but for us – this gift is amazingly impactful to our work and we are super honored to have Mom’s Group #311 honor their babies and celebrate their first year of motherhood this way.
Thanks to all the Mamas of group #311 (special shout out to Annika for coordinating!).
YOU are our super heroes!
Are you inspired to act? You can make an impact too! Contact us today and let us know what you are thinking.
Image from Mom’s Group #311
Seattle: Meet Carey
I came to know Carey’s story through Change.org and Mark (@hardlynormal). Mark has embarked on his Invisible People road trip again, and recently visited Carey and her family in the Seattle area.
Through my correspondence with Carey (she’s contributed some posts here), I see a smart and very capable woman who is currently stuck in a Catch 22 (employment, affordable childcare, homelessness).
Please watch Mark’s interview with her, and if you are moved to help, please take some time to think about what it is that you can do to help this family.
Carey spends hours looking for work and submitting job applications. She wants nothing more but to work and provide for her family. Do you know have contacts in the Seattle area who might be willing to think creatively in helping Carey expand her network and obtain employment? Maybe you know of a woman-owned local business who might be willing to give Carey and informational interview. Think out of the box here.
So many people in the digital space are rooting for Carey’s family I am certain fundraising first and last months rental deposit won’t be a big issue. BUT this will do no good unless we can help Carey obtain a job that will help her provide for her family.
Think about it and let me know your (out of the box) ideas.
Help a mother out.
photo credit: We Are Visible, Mark Horvath
