In July, thousands of ELCA youth and adults will descend on Detroit for the 2015 ELCA Youth Gathering, including 11 of our own members here at Halfway Creek. While the media leads us down a discouraging path through the stories it tells of Detroit, those of us planning the event have witnessed stories of Detroit residents who are fearlessly and enthusiastically reinvesting in the city’s rising. For example, Marybeth Levine wants to supply enough diapers for everyone who needs them.
Marybeth, a.k.a. the “Diaper Lady” recognized a need and created a solution in 2009 by starting the Detroit Area Diaper Bank (DADB). She was motivated by stories of low-income families stealing or reusing diapers. She also heard stories of desperate moms and dads sending their toddlers to preschool wearing plastic grocery bags when their supply of diapers ran out.
You are invited to donate diapers to send along with our youth. If you would prefer, you can also donate money and we will purchase diapers in Detroit with that money. You can simply write a check and make it out to Halfway Creek and put in the memo line, “Diaper drive”.
Collecting, sorting, and delivering diapers are among the service projects out people attending the 2015 ELCA Youth Gathering will participate in. Diapers will be collected at the 150-plus hotels where youth groups will stay. On our service day, young people will load the diapers into trailers that will be hauled by local volunteers to the Starfish Family Services building. ELCA youth will unload the diapers into the Starfish facility, take inventory, and organize them by size.
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