Children R First at Rainbow Station Wyndham
In November of last year, I read some very shocking news. According to a study conducted by Huggies®, 1 in 3 American mothers struggles with diaper need. This means that 1 in 3 infants in America is sometimes (if not regularly) suffering with painful diaper rashes, staph infections and sores on their skin that cannot heal properly because parents are unable to afford enough diapers to keep their children’s skin dry and healthy. I thought it was interesting that when Huggies® published their study online, they did not feature pictures of these rashes. The only pictures were of very healthy looking babies wearing clean diapers with a smile on their faces. 
That is a wonderful goal, but for 1 in 3 infants, I had just learned that it’s not currently a reality. I wanted to fully understand that reality, so I went to Google Images and typed in “severe diaper rash.” After glancing at the first dozen images or so, I was crying, and I had to close the screen. This is not an issue any of us, especially those of us who are mothers, want to face. It is very literally a hidden need that I can no longer say I wasn’t aware of. Now I want to make as many people as possible aware of this need so that those smiling happy babies on the Huggies® website will be the reality, not the goal.
I quickly met others in our community who want to achieve this same goal, and together we are spreading the word about The Capital Diaper Bank (CDB). Yes, Richmond has a diaper bank! Isn’t that wonderful? The founder of the CDB is Phyllis Bradley, Director of Capital Childcare in Richmond. Capital Childcare serves low-income families with quality childcare. Long before Huggies published their study, Phyllis discovered a severe diaper need for the families she serves, and she established an in-house bank in an effort to meet the diaper needs of those families. However, Phyllis knew what Huggies would soon discover; that this problem was not isolated, and other children in our community were suffering too. Phyllis began educating and reaching out to others to help her in this effort, and the CDB expanded into a community wide outreach effort last fall. I joined the diaper drive committee for the CDB and just since December of last year, I have been amazed at the overwhelming response that individuals, businesses and organizations have had to meet our call for help.
A recent example is the Rainbow Station at Wyndham. Rainbow Station is a franchise of quality childcare and preschool programs in Virginia, North Carolina and Texas. The Rainbow Station at Wyndham recently launched a program within their preschool based on Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. 
Erin Rice, the pre-kindergarten teacher at Rainbow Station Wyndham, explained how they incorporated the Habits into a unique teaching method for young children; “We as teachers did the Covey Training on the Habits of Highly Effective People after which we did multiple trainings on integrating the habits in “kid language” into our curriculum to help raise highly effective (and happy) kids. The idea is to get to the kids early, so they don’t ever have to retrain themselves on ways to be proactive, put first things first, etc.” 
Erin and her co-Teacher Lauren Moreno heard about the Capital Diaper Bank and decided it would be the perfect fit to begin helping the children learn through this new model of teaching. Focusing on the first Habit; “Be Proactive,” Erin and Lauren encouraged the children to brainstorm about ways to help the diaper bank. The children decided to distribute coin jars and host a bake sale to collect monetary donations, as well as providing a box for parents to drop off diapers to be given to the diaper bank. 
Their efforts were met by tremendous enthusiasm from the parents, staff and children. During the process one parent stated; “I am so pleased to see my son take an interest in helping others. He decided that he would make his bed each day to earn money to contribute. Other children in the class are also doing various chores at home to earn money. For me it is a win-win situation, teaching him responsibility at home and building character by having a heart to help others.” 
The bake sale raised $242 for the CDB, and the class won NBC12’s Acts of Kindness Award for helping babies in need! NBC12 added $300 to the children’s coin jars, and the feature will air on Tuesday May 3rd at 5:00pm.
We are so thankful to Rainbow Station and other businesses and organizations all around our community who are helping to meet the diaper need in Richmond. If you would like to get involved, and possibly host a diaper drive at your organization or place of business, please let us know! Email me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), or visit the Capital Diaper Bank website at www.capitaldiaperbank.org for more information about how you can get involved to help us supply diapers to families in need.
