By Carrie Scott
“Thank you so much! You don’t know how much this helps!” This outpouring of gratitude came from an appreciative mother who needed a simple, everyday item for her baby: diapers.
Heather and Jeff have had a difficult year – they lost their house in a fire several months ago, soon after the premature birth of their son. Since then, they’ve been working hard to rebuild and care for their family, but each month they still struggle to make ends meet. “Jeff worked 50 hours last week, but it,s still not enough to pay the rent.” When Heather called a local community assistance program last month for help, she didn’t ask for help with her rent or utility bills, she didn’t ask for food – she asked for diapers.
Thankfully, the community program receives diapers from the Piedmont Diaper Bank, and Heather was able to provide clean diapers for her precious baby!
Diaper Need
Programs like WIC and foodstamps do not cover the cost of diapers. In North Carolina 53% of children between birth and five years of age live in low-income households. More than HALF! And like Heather and Jeff, 80% of these households have at least one working adult. Diaper need is a widespread concern for many of these families, and it affects more than the babies’ bottoms. A recent study published in the journal Pediatricsdemonstrated that diaper need not only increases a child’s risk of infections and rashes, but it also contributes to parental stress and affectsoverall mental health. Access to diapers doesn’t only support happy, healthier babies – they contribute to happy, healthier families!
The Piedmont Diaper Bank is an all-volunteer organization with the goal of supplying diapers to food pantries, health departments, pregnancy care centers and other local aid agencies. Since its founding in 2010 by three local moms, the diaper bank has distributed over 270,000 diapers in the greater Triad area. The diaper bank relies on local diaper drives, donations from the community and from its partnership with the National Diaper Bank Network and Huggies to keep the warehouse full.
You can get involved!
As an all-volunteer organization our most valuable resource is volunteers! We have some of the best volunteers working hard to get diapers to families in our community, but we are always looking for more volunteers to help us make a stronger impact.
- Join us on a Tuesday morning to work at our warehouse
- Organize a diaper drive with your kids at their school or church
- Have your business host a diaper drive, or organize a “casual Friday” with proceeds to benefit the diaper bank
- Use your professional skills to help us bolster our organization (web or graphic design, social media marketing, grant writing, organizational development, etc.)
- Are you a Cloth-Diapering Parent, looking for a way to share the economical and ecological benefits of CD with other families? Volunteer to help our cloth diaper program!
- Join us on facebook!
Birthday Extravaganza
Are you looking for a way to support the diaper bank and have fun at the same time? Come out to Piedmont Diaper Bank’s Birthday Extravaganza on Friday November 8th from 6-8 pm at Sunrise United Methodist Church (1111 Lewisville-Clemmons Rd, Lewisville). Admission is free – but feel free to bring some diapers to donate! There will be a hot dog supper and a silent auction with proceeds to benefit the diaper bank.
We will be celebrating our third birthday with carnival style booths from Monkey Hooper, Clemmons Gymnastics, Cold Blooded Encounters, Snip Its, Alice’s Tea Party, Uncorked Masterpiece, Home Plate Batting Center, the Winston-Salem Soccerplex and more. Get ideas for your child’s next birthday party, bid on silent auction items, and entertain the whole family at the same time! Items in the silent auction include gift cards to local restaurants, a Dash ticket package, birthday party packages, custom made cakes, gift cards to local stores, and much much more. Check out local cake artists in our cake decorating contest and vote for your favorite. A hot dog dinner will be available for purchase.
This is the Forsyth Family Kid’s Morning Out (at night) event for November so there will also be a prize board and every family will have a chance to win some great door prizes. Bring diapers for additional chances to win. All proceeds from this event will be used to keep tiny tushes in our community happy and healthy. We look forward to seeing you on Fridaynight!
