On Saturday, August 3rd, YP Impact and a dedicated group of volunteers gathered at WestSide Baby’s South Lake Union location to help support WestSide Baby’s mission to provide basic items for children in need so they can thrive.
We were greeted by an enthusiastic employee who helped us register and then gave us a tour of the South Lake Union facility. On the tour, we learned about how Westside Baby collects new and used items for children and babies, sorts them, and distributes them free of charge to King County families in need through local social service agencies. Agencies request items from them and deliver them to families who are homeless, living in transitional housing, or in need of a little help during a difficult transition.
We then split into two different groups. One group bundled diapers and the other sorted donations.
At WestSide Baby families are given bundles of 45 diapers per child per month. Our volunteers counted the diapers, bundled them in bags, labeled them with how many diapers were in the bag, and then put them in the bin marked with corresponding diaper size.
WestSide Baby also provides clothes, cribs, car seats, books, baby formula, toys, and much more to families in need. Volunteers sorted donations as they came in as well as donations that were already present. Donations were divided by sex and age, if they needed mending or needed to be laundered, should go to Goodwill, if they were plastics or toys, etc. It should be noted that WestSide Baby tries to keep the donations to Goodwill minimal. Only maternity clothes, items mentioning holidays or referring to a family member (you never know what trauma someone might have been through) are donated to Goodwill.
Volunteering was very low key. There was lots of conversation, stories, and laughter while packaging and sorting items. At the same time, we were very productive! In the 3 hours, we volunteered and toured the facility over 100 bundles of diapers were packaged and more than 4 carts of donations were sorted. WestSide Baby was very grateful for and said that was an amazing feat.
We all worked up an appetite while volunteering so following the volunteer opportunity, we all headed to Brave Horse Tavern where we enjoyed some delicious food and drinks and ended our event with great people and great conversation.
