Organizers of a campaign aimed at helping to provide babies with basic needs during their first year of life are elated to have their fundraising goal shattered.
The intent behind the 100 women-100 dollars-100 hours initiative, was to raise $10,000 between October 9 and 12th, with donations earmarked for the Trinity Infant Food Shelf, at Trinity United Church in North Bay.
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The final tally came in at just over $15,270.
“Our annual budget is about $15,000, so this is going to pay for a whole year of service for us,” said Linda McLay, representing the Trinity Infant Food Shelf.
“We’ve already done some other fundraising to help us get this far, so whatever is left will go towards next year. It is just fantastic. We can’t believe it really.”
Last year the Infant Food Shelf program assisted 115 families at a cost of roughly $650 per family.
Caregivers are provided with a variety of items for children up to one year of age, things like diapers, wipes, breastfeeding supplies, soothers, formula, and blankets.
“They come once a month on Wednesday’s. We’re open from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and they can come 12 times after their baby is born. But they can actually come in the last trimester of their pregnancy as well, for assistance with a layette. So, in total they can come 13 times to the program,” said McLay.
Wendy Abdallah who helped spearhead the campaign, couldn’t be more pleased with the support the campaign received.
“I’m pretty ecstatic. We do have a very caring community. We had donations from men, women, organizations and also young people, so that was really interesting. What is most impressive, is that people donate what they can, and we certainly surpassed our target.”
As a former pediatric nurse, Abdallah knows how critical it is for a child to get the best start in life.
“The child learns how to trust the outside world when they have that bottle of formula, or their diaper is kept dry, or they’re snuggled up in a blanket. Those are all basic needs for a child, and they are certainly the most vulnerable population. Without them having any voice at that point in time, it is hard for them to let their parent know what their needs are. So giving them the basic needs makes them feel very secure.”
Being able to provide the basics also alleviates some of the stress on the caregiver.
“It is so much easier to sing a lullaby to your child or engage in some sort of fun activity with them when you’re not worried about where the next bottle of formula is going to come from, or the next diaper or whatever it is,” said Abdallah.
“We’re so thankful for the overwhelming support of the community. We know it is going to have a huge impact on our ability to service the community, and stock our shelves,” said McLay.
“And I think most importantly, although the financial piece is really important, it is the fact we were able to get community awareness out there, that families know now that we’re here to help. I think that will help us have a lot more babies who will get a really great start in life in our communities.”
That awareness has already resulted in new clients finding their way to the program.
“We had three new clients today already, that have never registered with the Trinity Infant Food Shelf before. And they all had brand new babies, under three months of age. They heard about our program through the media coverage of our campaign, so they came this morning to see how we could help them, and we did the best that we could. We generally see 10 to 12 families every week, but I expect that will grow because the message is out there.”
