Local Needy Families to Benefit from Diaper Drivethis Holiday Season
by Sandrini Gonzalez, posted on 2009-12-02 22:27:39
According to the National Center on Family Homelessness, 2.2 million children in California live in poverty. Of those children, nearly 300,000 are homeless; a little over one-third of those homeless children are under the age of six. These children rely on food stamps to live day-to-day. But food stamps won’t pay for diapers – a staple for the good health and care of babies. Enter HAMO – “Help a Mother Out” – an organization that launches in Los Angeles on Dec. 13 with an indoor play-date at The Treehouse Social Club in Beverly Hills. HAMO has a simple mission: to get diapers to mothers in need.
HAMO’s Holiday Playdate at The Treehouse Social Club is the organization’s debut in Los Angeles. Sponsored by Huggies, the event strives to physically collect diapers, and to raise awareness of the growing number of families who are affected by the recession, and how HAMO gives people easy ways to help. Parents are asked to bring a pack of diapers in lieu of the normal $9 per child admission price. Cash donations will be accepted, as well. The diapers and cash donation will benefit PATH Achieve Glendale and Ocean Park Community Center in Santa Monica.
Kim Tracy Prince, producer and well-known mommy blogger with the LA Moms Blog, is the HAMO Los Angeles Chapter Manager. “Our intent with this event is to get the Los Angeles community familiarized with the organization and our very simple mission,” she said. “Ultimately our goal is to collect diapers year-round so that homeless and impoverished mothers in Los Angeles will no longer have to choose between food and diapers as they struggle to care for their families.”
In the Los Angeles area, the organization counts on widespread support from the blogosphere including Lolita Carrico, founder of the Gloss Network for Women and original founder of modernmom.com, and local mommy bloggers including Jessica Gottlieb, Marsha Takeda-Morrison (Sweatpants Mom) and Tiffany Romero. The organization is also utilizing social media to drive awareness and participation; you can follow HAMO on Twitter at www.twitter.com/helpamotherout and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/helpamotherout.
Help A Mother Out (HAMO) (www.helpamotherout.org) was formed in the spring of 2009 in reaction to media reports about the effect of the economic crisis on young children, families, and mothers, in particular the growing numbers of homeless children and families in California. Reaching out to San Francisco Bay Area shelters, cofounders Lisa Truong and Rachel Fudge learned that their number-one need was not baby blankets, clothing, or even food but diapers—which are not covered under social safety-net programs like WIC or food stamps. So they decided to organize a Mother’s Day diapers-and-wipes donation drive to benefit a dozen agencies serving low-income and homeless families throughout California. The May campaign generated over 15,000 diapers for families in need. Surprised and awed by the outpouring of support from across the country, they decided to turn the one-time drive into an ongoing year-round campaign both to encourage diaper donations and to raise awareness.
Additional event sponsors include: LEG Productions, JessicaGottlieb.com, MyGloss.com, Pepperidge Farms’ Fishful Thinking and LabelDaddy.com. In kind donations and door prizes by e.l.f. cosmetics, Heather Fish Studio, Yvonne's Gluten-free Goodies, Turner Classic Movies and PBS Kids. Always and Tampax are sending supply donations for the centers. Birdie Mendoza and David Tobocman will perform at the event at no cost to the organization.
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