Remote drop off sites make the donation process better for you and us

The Big Bundle is one of EBC’s most ordered items. It’s a substantial offering that contains a week’s worth of clothing, a toy, a book, socks, shoes, undergarments, toiletries and more. All in all, each Big Bundle contains about 45 items on average, almost all of which come from donations provided by YOU, our generous community.

Each week EBC fills about 200 Bundles, a whopping 8,118 total Bundles last year. Again, all filled with clothing, books and toys that you brought into to the HUB. Let’s do a little math here, and we can estimate, 8,100ish Bundles times 45 items per Bundle gives us close to 350,000 items that you’ve donated and we’ve been able to give back out. And that’s just the Bundles. There are also the layettes we provide new babies – we gave out almost 800 last year – the toys that are given out outside of the Bundle, the high chairs, the car seats, the cribs, the swings, the bikes, the bedding, the coats, the boots. I think you get the idea. You are bringing a lot of stuff!

Processing all that stuff is no easy tasks. We have an army of volunteers who spend hours every week sorting and organizing your donations. But outside of the time required to go through the items, space is also something we battle. Where can we possible keep all of this stuff until our volunteers have had the time to organize it? One solution that has worked really well for us is having remote drop off sites – we have three generously donated to us by Issaquah Highlands Self Storage, Marymoor Self Storage and Red Way Self-Storage.

The obvious benefit to the remote drop off sites is convenience for you, our donors. If you don’t live near the Hub, or if you can’t make our regularly scheduled drop off hours, you can swing by one of the units and drop your donation. Easy Peasy. But a less obvious benefit of the remote sites is that we have more control over when the items come into the Hub for sorting. This way we can bring them in when we know we will have volunteers on hand to process them. The remote sites have been a real win/win for all of us.

Volunteer Brennon Lee helps his dad, Tim Lee, pick up your donations from Issaquah Highlands Self Storage. The two bring your donations to the EBC Hub each week where an army of volunteers is on hand to sort and organize them.

 

As it is the season of giving, we want to honor the donation of these sites for the gift that they are. We thank you Issaquah Highlands Self Storage, Marymoor Self Storage and Red Way Self-Storage for your generous gift!

Because we are blessed to have these storage spaces donated to us, we feel it is important to make certain we are all doing our part to respect the businesses providing this wonderful gift. Going into the new year, you will notice a few additions/changes to the sites. For example, there are certain larger items, like cribs and other furniture, we will ask you to bring to the Hub so we can keep the space free for more donations. There will be other items, like car seats, that we will ask you to bring to the Hub because of the inspection process required before we can accept them. Keep an eye out for updated policy and procedure signage which should better help you understand these and other changes.

Also, if there is any way you feel we can make your remote drop-off experience better, please reach out to us. You can email us madelinef@babycorner.org or call us at 425-865-0234.

Reconnect with the true meaning of the holiday season by giving your time on #GivingTuesday

It’s hard not to feel a little holiday exhaustion when the holiday decorations have been in stores since before Halloween. Or on days like Black Friday where, if you participate, you’re up at the wee hours of the morning standing in a line outside of a store hoping to get a few good deals. Or you’re battling crowds everywhere you go. But this time of year doesn’t have to leave you exhausted and unfulfilled. By giving to others, you can reconnect with the true meaning of the season. One way you can give of yourself is by participating in #GivingTuesday:

#GivingTuesday is a global initiative designed to help people reconnect with the true spirt of the season in order to bring about real change. It’s conveniently held after Black Friday and Cyber Monday – on December 1st this year.

Eastside Baby Corner invites you to participate in #GivingTuesday by giving the gift of your time to help local kids have what they need to thrive. In honor of the event we will be offering two special volunteer shifts on Tuesday evening. The first is from 3 to 5 pm, and the second is from 5:30 to 7:30pm. Please consider joining others in your community for this joyous beginning to the giving season.

During the shift, volunteers can expect to be sorting and organizing clothing for children.

For more info information, please contact Cori at Corib@babycorner.org. Signups are available online at http://www.babycorner.org/volunteer-time/.

 

EBC’s strength comes from community partnerships like this one

For those of you who have volunteered at EBC, or who have taken a tour, you’ll understand the term “Mount Blessing.” For those of you who haven’t (and you should contact us to schedule a tour right away), Mount Blessing is the transition area where we store your incoming donations until our volunteers have the chance to sort them and put them on the shelves. On the days we receive a lot of donations the area can become quite a pile (hence the name Mount).

Recently, the handy men in our lives – a wonderful volunteer team that consists of Dick Scott, Pete Kraetsch, Greg Wineland and Tim Sullivan – came up with an idea to help us better organize, and contain Mount Blessing. They were happy to give the gift of time to build the system, but first we needed two things: funds to buy the supplies and someone to clear Mount Blessing down to the floor so they could build in its spot.

Step one, the funding. The Bellevue Breakfast Rotary has supported EBC for the past year with grants given for the specific purpose of making facility improvements that allow EBC to increase our ability to serve MORE kids. Last spring they gave $7,500. They increased their support this fall to $15,500. The Mount Blessing project is just one of the many safety, efficiency and improved inventory management projects the gift will fund.

Step two, preparing the area. This was a substantial task that required a lot of hands. Many of our core volunteers took on the project in addition to their regular HUB responsibilities. Most notably our Diaper Divas, Helen Scott and Jackie Koeneman spent six hours sorting donations!

With ample materials and a clean floor, Dick, Pete, Greg and Tim built the organization system in a day!

While we are beyond grateful for the new receiving system, which has made the donation process so much more efficient, we wanted to share this story because it highlights how incredibly important forming partnerships with our community is for accomplishing the mission of helping kids. It puts ‘it takes a village’ in a whole different light.

We often share our founder, Karen Ridlon’s words:

“EBC is so successful because it does not belong to any one person. It belongs to us all. And it requires all of us to help in whatever way we can.”

Conquering Mount Blessing is the perfect example of many people giving a little to do big things. From our donors helping us keep it full of great things to give kids, to our volunteers who make the EBC engine go, to the financial supporters who allow us to do this important work by making sure the volunteers have what they need, and finally, to our amazing network of provider partners who work with EBC to get your great donations to the kids in our community.

Thank you all!

5 Fun Collection Drives to Host During the Holiday Season – From Halloween until the New Year

The holiday season is upon us! From now until early January you’re bound to be buzzing about keeping the holiday spirt alive. While you go about enjoying everything this time of year has to offer, don’t forget to pause and take a moment to think about the children and families in your community who need a little extra help to have a joyous holiday season.

Here is a list of five fun collection drives you can host over the coming months to help local kids have what they need to thrive:

The ‘Childhood Poverty is SPOOKY’ Drive – Halloween is such a fun holiday for kids (of all ages), but when families struggle to meet their child’s basic needs, it’s often hard to enjoy the simple things in life like dressing up and trick or treating. If you are having a spooky party this Halloween, why not consider adding a collection drive to the mix and help ALL local kids enjoy the holiday? Some items to collect include warm jammies and books to make cooler nights a little cozier. Bonus way to help kids: After Halloween, donate your kid’s costumes to EBC so we can hang on to them to give to another child next year.

The ‘Giving Thanks and Giving Back’ Drive – Turn your Thanksgiving event into a giving back event by asking guests to bring in a donation for EBC. Since you are likely giving thanks while eating yummy food, use this drive to help make sure local babies get the nourishment they need by collecting formula and baby food. In addition to giving food and formula to individuals (working through our provider partners), EBC also supplies ten area foodbanks with these life-saving items.

The ‘A Happy Holiday for ALL” Drive – The candy is collected, the turkey is eaten and now it’s time for the season of giving. At EBC we love this time of year. While this community is generous year round, during the holiday you all give back so magnanimously it melts our hearts and keeps us warm until spring. There are so many creative ways to host holiday drives. If you are a business or organization, consider a giving tree where employees, volunteers or customers can take a tag and purchase one of our high-need items. Business and organizations can also keep a collection bin on site, collecting items like toys or books. Individuals can request donations of children’s items in lieu of gifts. There are many events during the holiday season, so this is the best time for you to get creative and create a fun collection drive that will help kids in your own backyard.

The ‘Resolve to Do More to Help Kids in 2016’ Drive – Why not make your New Year’s Resolution a little more altruistic this year, and help your friends do the same, by kicking off the New Year with an event that includes giving back. Take full advantage of the “New Year’s Baby” theme and ask guests to bring in diapers, pacifiers, bottles or anything baby that EBC can give to families to help get them off to a good start. Businesses and organizations, your ‘Resolve to Do More to Help Kids’ drive might include keeping a collection box in your office throughout the month of January.
Bonus:  On top of keeping you out of the overcrowded gyms in January, when you resolve to do more to help kids in 2016 the joy you feel in your heart at knowing you made a difference will last all year long.

The ‘Baby It’s Cold Out There’ Drive – Looking for a catchall winter drive? This might be the one for you. Host a ‘Baby It’s Cold Out There Drive’ and collect items local children need for winter. Coats, hats and mittens are some really great choices. It’s terrible to watch a child go without anytime, but to see a child without the clothing he or she needs to be warm in the winter is heartbreaking. During this, the happiest time of year, let’s do everything we can to keep these kids warm and dry.

Collecting stuff not right for you? You can still help EBC help children in your community by using your holiday event to raise money that will allow EBC to responsibly purchase items such as car seats, cribs, diapers and formula to supplement donations from the community.

Here are a few fun ways to raise funds for EBC: Groups or Individuals – Charge an entry fee for your white elephant gift exchange, set up a tip jar at your bar or charge a dollar every time someone says the word holiday. Businesses and Organization – Auction off a prized parking spot, have employees donate money in exchange for being able to dress casually on Friday or host a holiday bake sale. No matter what you choose, set a goal so participants can measure their success.

Have your own ideas for a holiday drive? You are always a creative bunch! Contact Cori at Corib@babycorner.org to learn more about how easy and fun hosting a collection drive can be.

Why you should consider participating in Workplace Giving

You can DOUBLE your money! Does that get your attention?
How about doubling the impact you can make in a local child’s life with your financial support? Better?
How about doubling your money and impact by doing nothing more than signing up to have your donation to EBC automatically deducted from your paycheck through your company’s workplace giving program. Pretty amazing, right?
The workplace giving season is upon us – with October being the primary month for signups. As you make your plans for charitable giving, here are some unique benefits of workplace giving you might want to consider.
Workplace giving benefits both the community and you, the employee, in several ways.
First, the community benefits from your gift in that the organization you give to has a better understanding of the funding it will have in the coming year. This understanding allows the organization to plan ahead and make the most of  your contribution.
The employee benefits in the obvious way that workplace giving is convenient, you can have your gift deducted from your pay check and can still take advantage of the tax incentives. Another clear benefit to workplace giving is that if your employer matches funds, you DOUBLE your contribution, helping organizations like EBC do even more to accomplish the mission you believe in. A less obvious benefit to the employee is that you get to help direct your employer’s charitable giving. You get to decide where they will spend their philanthropic dollars.

EBC receives nearly $57,000 each year through workplace giving, Nearly half of that amount is from matching funds. We are able to use this money to buy the things that we do not or cannot receive through community donations, like car seats, portable cribs, formula and diapers. We use our ability to buy these items in bulk at a discounted rate and really stretch the funds that come in through workplace giving.
Workplace giving is an excellent opportunity for both you and EBC, please consider giving to EBC so that together we can help local kids have what they need to THRIVE
If you have not been to the EBC for a tour, please come and visit and see how we put workplace giving funds and other donations to use. Email helenr@babycorner.org and we will schedule a time that works for you.

What you need to know for Diaper Need Awareness Week

Recently we shared with you why giving diapers to families in need is REALLY important. Now, we want to tell you about how you can help make a difference by participating in National Diaper Need Awareness Week.

National Diaper Need Awareness Week, held September 28th – October 4th, is an initiative of the National Diaper Bank Network (NDBN) – of which EBC is a member. It was created to mobilize efforts to help make a difference in the lives of the nearly 5.3 million babies in the U.S. who live in poor or low-income families. Participation is easy and fun. Here are three simple things you can do:

• Follow EBC on Facebook and Twitter. Leading up to, and during the week, we will share information about diaper need and what you can do to help. Please like and share the posts to help others understand diaper need, as well as ways THEY can help.
• Join the Twitter Party on Thursday, October 1st. Using hashtag #diaperneed, participate in a nationwide Twitter Party where participants can share information, stories, activities and more from Diaper Need Awareness Week.
• Donate your Tweet or Post. Surely you’ve heard of crowdsourcing, but how about crowdvoicing? Thanks to a new crowdvoicing platform call Thunderclap, we can amplify our diaper need message by having a Tweet, Tumblr post and Facebook post sent out to thousands of social media users at the same. If you donate your post (which you can do here), Thunderclap will automatically send a tweet or post from you on September 30th at 12pm PST. The post will say:

“Help local diaper banks keep all babies clean, dry & healthy. RT to support #DiaperNeed Awareness Week. http://thndr.it/1iSmGjB”

Learn more about Thunderclap here.

Giving diapers to families in need is REALLY important, and here’s why

When was the last time you gave diapers much thought? If you have small children in your home, chances are you think about diapers ALL of the time. But beyond those few short years when the average family has children in diapers, nappies just aren’t something most of us think about.

But we should.

Diapers, or rather the lack of them (a situation known as diaper need), is a serious issue, preventing many at-risk families from breaking out of the cycle of poverty. One solution is to donate diapers to these families through local diaper banks, but to understand the importance of that kind act, please consider the following diaper facts:

• Diaper need impacts the physical, mental and economic wellbeing of children and parents.
• Most child care centers require parents to provide a day’s supply of disposable diapers (four to six changes during the day).
• Many parents cannot go to work or school if they can’t leave their babies at child care.
• Infants require up to 12 diapers per day, at a cost of $70 to $80 or more per month per baby.
• Government safety-net programs do not recognize diapers as a basic need.
• Diapers cannot be obtained with food stamps, and are classified with cigarettes, alcohol and pet food as disallowed purchases.

In response to the significance of helping families experiencing diaper need, the National Diaper Bank Network created a week of awareness, known as National Diaper Need Awareness Week, to help the public understand how they can help families in their community. It will be held this year September 28th to October 3rd.

We would like to invite you to help us support the National Diaper Bank Network in this endeavor – as well as the families we serve – by following us on Facebook and Twitter as we share stories of families impacted by diaper need, facts and figures, and ways that we all can work together to help local families.

Are you coming to the Pants Party tomorrow? Here’s a list of 8 activities you must see and do at this year’s event

Pants Party is tomorrow! Are you as excited as we are about this awesome opportunity to have fun, while making sure the kids in our community are going back to school with everything they need to succeed?

While there is so much to do at this year’s Pants Party, here’s a list of eight must-do activities.

1. Tour the EBC Hub. Ever wonder how EBC is able to help hundreds of children each week? The answer is tremendous volunteer support. At Pants Party the EBC Hub will be open for tours, and you definitely shouldn’t miss the chance to see this hardworking team of volunteers in action.
2. Watch a few (very talented) local kids perform on the Pants Party stage. Taking the Pants Party Stage this year are: Issaquah’s-own teen musician, Sam Foster; Sammamish local and world champion bagpiper, Weston Kennedy; and Seattle natives and nationally-ranked highland dancers, Olivia and Isabel Yamashita. You’ll want to see these kids perform.
3. Catch up with local businesses. Several of our most beloved local organizations – from the Cougar Mountain Zoo, to Springfree Trampoline, to KidsQuest Children’s Museum (complete list here) – are bringing activities to Pants Party, make sure to take time to visit their booths and catch up on their latest happenings.
4. Touch a truck, or car. Eastside Fire and Rescue is bringing a firetruck and Issaquah Police will have a cruiser on hand for you to check out. Stop by and ask the ‘boys in blue’ everything you ever wanted to know about firetrucks and police cars.
5. Play a game. We pride ourselves on having some of the best old-fashioned games and activities around. Try your hand at matching shoes, diaper races, hula hooping, lassoing, bubble blowing or the famous ‘Spin to Win’ trivia game. If the joy of the game is not enough, there will be prizes!
6. Create something. Throughout the activity area find opportunities for arts and crafts, coloring and more. Your creations will make a great Pants Party souvenir.
7. Eat. Top Pot is bringing doughnuts, Forrest Fairy Bakery made cookies for the cake walk, Safeway, Albertsos and several EBC volunteers donated treats, and EBC will be popping popcorn. You will be leaving Pants Party with a happy belly.
8. Win a prize just for doing all of these activities. The Official Pants Party Passport book is returning this year. Visit ten of the 12 stations featured in the book, get a stamp and return it to us for a special prize. Want more winning? There will also be door prizes! Purchase you ‘chance to win’ for $1 at the EBC booth.

Can you take any more excitement? Get the full Pants Party lineup here.

We’ll see you tomorrow!

Thank you to this year’s Pants Party Sponsors: Sound Publishing, AmericanWest Bank, The Cougar Mountain Zoo, Macaroni Kids Snoqualmie Valley – Issaquah and Elite Chiropractic.

Your Pants Party Update

Pants Party is a little more than a week away! Here is your updated list of who you can see and what you can do at this year’s event.

Appearing on the Pants Party Stage are:
Comerford School of Irish Dance, musician Sam Foster, rodeo clown Scott Wagner, Studio East, Tiger Mountain Music Together and world-champion bagpiper Weston Kennedy

Bringing information and activities are:
Seattle Pony Party, Springfree Trampoline, Cougar Mountain Zoo, KidsQuest Children’s Museum, Top Pot Doughnuts, Eastside Fire and Rescue, The Issaquah Police Department, City of Issaquah Parks & Recreation, SafKids Eastside, Tiger Mountain Music Together, YMCA Sammamish, Happy Family, Voz de la Comunidad, and Kaleidescope School of Music

There will also be food, games and prizes!

Don’t Forget to take a tour of the EBC Hub to see how we are helping thousands of kids go back to school fully prepared – from their pencils to their pants.

Here’s what you need to know:

6th Annual Pants Party

“The Wild West”

Saturday, September 12th ● 10am to 1pm

EBC Hub ● 1510 NW Maple St., Issaquah, WA

Bring in a pair of new or gently-used pants (size 0 – 14) to give to a local child in need.

Our goal is 4,500 pairs!

If you can’t make the event, but would like to donate pants, consider visiting one of these collection sites.

1. Goddard School – Redmond Ridge
2. Gymnastics East – Issaquah
3. Issaquah Women’s Club
4. PCL Construction, Inc.
5. Redmond Kid’s Dentistry
6. Kimberly-Clark
7. Goddard School – Issaquah
8. Sammamish Children’s School
9. The Little Gym – Issaquah
10. Lake Washington United Methodist Church
11. Sammamish Children’s School
12. BUMC

Email Cori at corib@babycorner.org for more information.

Around the Hub – What is your fondest back to school memory?

While many kids may disagree, there is something special about the start of a new school year. Perhaps it’s because many families make a big fuss about the occasion, or because a world of possibilities seems to open up. Here’s what our supporters remember as their fondest back to school memories.

Do you know about our back to school event, Pants Party? It’s a ‘fun’raiser designed to help us make sure we have the “stuff” kids need. Learn more here.