This Holiday Season, Give the Gift of Diapers!
Diaper Bank Meets Families’ Most Basic Need
At Denny Civic Solutions we believe that our greatest mission is bettering Pennsylvania communities through hard work and advocacy, and we’re truly blessed that the organizations we work with have the same goal in mind. One of those organizations is the Western Pennsylvania Diaper Bank (WPDB), located in Pittsburgh, PA. In the spirit of the holidays, we would like to spotlight the WPDB and the work they dedicate towards helping families in need.
The Western Pennsylvania Diaper Bank has made it their mission to provided parents in need with their babies’ most basic necessity: diapers. In 2012, Reverend Phillip Battle and Cathy Battle decided to join the fight for families in Western Pennsylvania by providing diapers to local families who expressed such a need.
Under the direction of Cathy Battle, co-founder and the bank’s director, the Western Pennsylvania Diaper Bank works tirelessly to raise funds to support the seemingly never-ending demand for diapers from local families. Though the organization is mainly volunteer-driven, WPDB managed to repackage and distribute over 45,000 diapers just last month – and plans to increase that monthly total to 60,000 come 2019, according to Mrs. Battle.
The Diaper Bank is funded in large part by kind donors who give both monetary funds and diapers to WPDB – though monetary donations are preferred so the Diaper Bank can purchase exactly what the bank needs at the time. After the diapers arrive at the Diaper Bank’s facility in Point Breeze, they are repackaged and sent to one of the Bank’s partner agencies, where the diapers and other supplies like diaper cream and wipes are distributed to those in need. The Diaper Bank supplies these diapers and related necessities to their partner agencies at no cost, to ensure that the diapers reach those with the most need. The partner agencies also help spread awareness of the Diaper Bank to potential donors and clients.
In the words of our principal, John Denny, “What gets us up every morning at Denny Civic Solutions is knowing that, every day, we work with true heroes. Cathy Battle and her husband, Reverend Phillip Battle, are two such people. Because of them, babies in financially struggling families are kept dry with donated diapers and many of our region’s poor, frail, and elderly are able to keep their dignity because of the diaper bank’s support. Sometimes, simple things make a huge difference in a person’s life. Thank you, Cathy and Reverend Battle!”
From its original six partner agencies in Allegheny County, the Western Pennsylvania Diaper Bank has grown to 32 partner agencies in four additional counties – Fayette, Somerset, Washington and Westmoreland. In 2017 it collected and distributed 181,000 diapers. This year, the total has exceeded over half a million.
We at the DCS office want to say thank you, WPDB, for your hard work and dedication to an often overlooked but widespread need in our community. This holiday season, we are so happy and thankful to be able to offer our own donation in support of such a wonderful cause – and we encourage all of you to do the same here.
