Cry for help answered quickly
Nearly 500 cans of baby formula are stacked on a table of Spokane’s Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery, ready to be stored in a once-naked pantry.
Lucinda Kay, director of development, could not be happier.
“The response has been incredible,” she said, “It doesn’t surprise me that people care about Spokane’s children, but it certainly touches me.”
A week ago, the nursery was at an all-time low on baby formula with only a few cans in the walk-in pantry. Kay sent out a plea.
“We only have a few cans left on the shelves,” read her e-mail. “It’ll be a long week ahead if we don’t fill those shelves.”
The response was immediate. Kay said that within 20 minutes of sending the e-mail, she was contacted by Realtor Rick Richards.
“You know it just looked like a cry of help,” said Richards, who donated $200.
Readers of The Spokesman-Review’s Huckleberries blog had donated more than $500 in cash and formula by noon Friday, said D.F. Oliveria, who runs the blog. Kay’s plea was posted on the blog Thursday afternoon.
Donations “spread like wildfire,” Kay said. Dozens of donors gave cans of powder formula.
It was the second time Kay has sent out a plea for baby formula. It is a pricy necessity, costing about $24 per can, but is as necessary as diapers. Needy parents can come and get formula from the nursery, and it’s also used in-house when parents drop off their children.
Named for a 2-year-old Spokane girl who died from abuse, the free drop-in nursery cares for children whose families face crises such as homelessness, domestic violence and substance abuse. Most children stay for no longer than three days.
From Wednesday through Sunday last week, the nursery was given $115,000 from the Rosauers Open/Bank of American Pro-Am Golf Tournament. Kay said that money helps cover operating costs, not supplies.
In its 19 years, the nursery has served 50,000 babies, including more than 3,000 last year. But, Kay said, the nursery also was forced to turn away parents and more than 1,000 babies.
Kay said nursery staff members are trying to get to the point where they never have to turn a family away. In February, the nonprofit established a Certified Houseparent Volunteer program, in which volunteers are trained and certified to wash babies and change their diapers. The house parents commit to work at least one four-hour shift a week.
There are now 12 house parents to help manage the 12 to 16 babies that come into the nursery daily. Nursery officials hope to get 48 volunteers by the end of the year so the nursery can run at full capacity.
“That way there’ll be no empty beds,” Kay said.