LA fire victims in need of diapers get a big care package, courtesy of The Youth Closet & Toy Chest and Vail Mountain School students
Chris Dillmann/Vail Daily
It takes either time or helping hands to sort bags of donated diapers into shipping boxes. That’s where Vail Mountain School’s Philanthropy Service Club comes in handy.
Members of that club gathered in the school’s greenhouse on Wednesday to sort and box hundreds of diapers, getting them ready for shipping to fire victims in the Los Angeles area.
The Youth Closet & Toy Chest, an EagleVail-based nonprofit, recently held a diaper drive to send needed items to Southern California families who have lost their homes and possessions in that region’s recent wildfires.
Allison Faeder is the board chair for the nonprofit. The mother of a 5- and 7-year-old, Faeder said the organization is a great way for the family to volunteer together 鈥� and a fun way for her kids to test the toys that are donated by other families.
“Our mission is to help the families in our community,” Faeder said, adding that board members and other volunteers know that families in other communities also need help.
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Helping families in Southern California “was a really good opportunity for us to share our resources and our time in a way that is impactful,” Faeder said.
As Faeder talked with other board members, and as the fires dominated TV news coverage, she got in touch with organization director Rebecca Kanaly asking if there was a way the local group could help.
The group first sent a truckload of clothes and supplies to a relief organization in Southern California, then looked into a second effort.
Kanaly said as the group looked into what was needed, they found that more than clothes, young parents needed diapers.
“We discovered one niche we can fill is diapers and baby supplies,” Kanaly said. So the group held a diaper drive through Feb. 11. The result was many bags of diapers of all sizes. But those diapers then needed to be sorted, boxed and prepared for shipment.
That’s where the Vail Mountain School kids came in handy. Members of the school’s Philanthropy Service Club filtered into the greenhouse and got right to work, sorting diapers by size into boxes, then taping them up for shipment.
Teddy Brunner, a 10th-grade student, said he has a friend attending Pepperdine University in Southern California who was evacuated during the fires, “which sounds pretty scary.”
Brunner said he had some mid-day time, so decided to help with the project.
Another 10th-grade student, Mac Dienst, also had some free time and decided to lend a hand to the project. Dienst hadn’t heard much about the fires beyond what he’d seen on the news but noted that the family of one of his sister’s friends in that area had lost their home to the fires.
Alondra Garcia, another 10th grader, is intimately familiar with new parents’ need for diapers. Garcia noted that she’s an aunt 鈥� her older brother has a baby these days.
“Instead of regular presents, we give diapers now,” she said.
With that, she went back to sorting diapers out of the bags to put them into the right boxes to find homes for families in the Los Angeles area.
While this diaper drive is over, there’s still a and to ship them. And, of course, donations to the Youth Closet & Toy Chest’s daily operations are also welcome any time.
