If you told me three years ago, as I stood in a park with another mom talking about families needing diapers, that we’d be signing a lease (that’s me with the signed lease and the more dignified Jay signing the lease – the real estate agent was more than a little amused by how excited we were!) on a warehouse and making preparations to distribute more than half a million diapers this year I would have laughed you off the playground… Seriously. I would have laughed. I was knee deep then – a 10-month-old little guy, working full time, still getting my parenting legs – but here we are! We’re moving on up!!
And life looks very different now – we’ve gone from an idea in a park to a reality. More than 400,000 diapers later, too many diaper drives to count, and thousands of babies and families helped, we are expanding more each and every day. But I’m still knee deep! My ‘little guy’ became the “Diaper Drive Mascot” and is now almost 4 and has a 2-month-old sister to share mascot duties with these days.
So, why the move? Our operations have gotten so large we need to expand – we had been distributing 35,000+ diapers a month through a partnership with Capital Area Food Bank. When we began that partnership in April of 2011 we were distributing 5,000 to 8,000 diapers a month. An eight-fold increase means that we need to take operations to the next level.
Our new warehouse in Silver Spring (8858 Monard Drive – about ten minutes from downtown Silver Spring) will allow us to take more donations, distribute more diapers, expand our network of social service agencies, and offer more resources to families in our area. This is a huge step for us as an organization and a huge step for strengthening families and supporting babies. And it means there are even more ways to get involved in this work! For me the most exciting thing about this warehouse is the ability we will have to engage with all our donors around this issue.
Sooooooo, come hang out with us! We move into the new space in August and we’re going to have a number of Warehouse Warming & Volunteer Days in the coming months – please come see the new digs and spend a little time helping us make the new space home (and pack a few diapers while you’re there!). Dates are below and there will be more on our Facebook page in the coming weeks. The space is big and we can use any number of volunteers and volunteer groups. If you’re interested in joining us for one of the below dates please get in touch (info@dcdiaperbank.org)
Volunteer Dates
- Tuesday, August 13th 9am – 1pm
- Wednesday, August 21st 6pm – 9pm
- Saturday, August 24th 10am – 2pm
OK, off to happy dance around DCDB Headquarters some more and do more inventory planning!