Jchoice.Org

Initial donations for car seats were received in 1989. Portacrib purchases began in the early 1990’s. In October 2007 we delayed purchases for 2 months for space availability reasons. In October 2008 further purchase of car seats for the year 2008 were frozen for financial reasons. Evenflo Co. (the manufacturer of the portacribs that we purchases) informed us in mid-2008 that they would no longer have the portacribs we were ordering available. The last shipment of portacribs was distributed in early October 2008. We would like to resume the program

Our goal is to continue providing  needed baby essentials and equipment to babies and young children that are in need from the community. We consider any child a “baby” that is not ready to start Kindergarten. In this way we are somewhat different from other programs in the area that usually consider a baby to be a child under 12 months of age. Over the years we have found that very often families have more than 1 child under school age. The baby’s needs are considered “special” when dealing with many social service agencies. Also, in addition to being “special” the needs are expensive per child to address. Currently, new parents need to budget about $100 per month just to cover the cost for disposable diapers. Many times the difficulty is not finding things for the newborn but finding what’s needed for the toddler or older child that has outgrown their clothing, car seat, or other needed items. We have encouraged the nurses and social workers to educate the recipients to recycle outgrown items and give back to others in need. In this manner those that have received, learn to give help to the next baby in need. The family may not be able to give money to the programs they have benefited from, but they can donate baby equipment and clothing that their child is now finished using so that another baby may benefit from the available donations. This way those that receive assistance can help provide assistance to others that are now in difficult circumstances.

The phone rang, late in November 1993. A social worker from the Emergency Room at a large local hospital wanted to know if we had any car seats available. There had been a traffic accident and a mother and 4 children were at the Emergency Room. All of the children were under 6 years old and none of them had a safe car seat. The 4 month-old was thrown through the windshield and was admitted to the hospital with a depressed skull fracture and other injuries. The 3 older siblings were shaken-up and somewhat bruised, but nothing that required immediate hospitalization to treat. A Child Protective Services social worker and a Seattle Police officer were ready to come to our office and get the car seats as soon as we had them ready. We provided car seats for all 4 of the children. (We also learned that none of the children had a jacket or hat appropriate to the weather. We added the winter jackets, hats, and a Teddy Bear for each child.) Discussions and determinations were going on as to whether or not to release the 3 children to the mother’s custody. Having 4 children in the car without any car seats is a serious offense and CPS would have to decide what to do. But, CPS could not even remove the children from the mother’s custody until they had car seats to transport the children.

 “Mitzvah Crib”

We can provide you with information on how to start a “Mitzvah Crib” in your community. Many communities now have a baby crib near the food bank barrel in the Jewish Community Center, school lobby, or synagogue entranceway.  People bring what they have to share. Things like diapers, car seats, baby wash, and toys are only a few of the things that quietly appear in the crib.