Our Hero provides service/volunteers for starting and running a program, Diaper a Day, which provides diapers for infants and young children. This has a direct impact on maternal and child health.
Lisa started this program in early 2016. Lisa is the parish secretary of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Clinton, MA. The Women’s Infants and Children (W.I.C) program rents space from the church. Lisa saw a constant stream of people with young children coming in, many in obvious need of some assistance. While state and federal programs provide some nutritional needs assistance, they provide no help for this most basic sanitation and health need. The program was initially funded by cash donations and donations in kind by members of Good Shepherd, but it was obvious that this small parish alone could not provide anywhere near enough to even approach meeting the need.
With Lisa’s constant promotion of the idea, there are now additional churches in the area that are sponsors of the program. The program also receives help from other churches who run occasional drives and from generous members of the general community. In the first month of the program’s existence, January 2016, over 200 diapers were distributed. That number has climbed to over 1,200/month and in February of this year over 1,300 diapers were distributed.
The program is designed to be a supplement for the families. Almost all are working but with the cost of diapers being quite high, a helping hand is most beneficial.
Lisa is hoping to spread this program into other communities. It is our belief that Lisa is a truly exemplary model of the Rotary motto of Service Above Self and deserves recognition as a Rotary Service Hero.