Communications Director Siena Kaplan-Thompson sat down with two of the main organizers to learn more. This is a condensed version of her conversation with Cheryl Frankowski, care coordinator at White Mountain Community Health Center, and Cathy Livingston, Raising the Valley coordinator and director of the Family Connections Resource Center at Children Unlimited.
Siena Kaplan-Thompson: So what is a community baby shower?
Cathy Livingston: It’s a community-sponsored event for families to come meet each other, get connected to resources available to them within the community, and just a really fun gathering. I guess it really started with that - a fun way to come and meet other families and connect.
Cheryl Frankowski: It was also conceived of as a way for Raising the Valley, which is the early childhood coalition in northern Carroll County, to be able to welcome to new families. It’s a collaborative event, with many local organizations working together to make this happen.
SKT: Who should come to the baby shower?
CF: Any people expecting a baby, and their families! Adoptive families and foster families all are welcome. And you can absolutely bring your kids of any age along, and all families are welcome. Flatbread is donating pizza, including gluten free options, and there will be fruit and veggie platters donated by Hannaford and Shaw’s, so you don’t have to worry about dinner, you can bring the whole family.
SKT: Tell me more about the event – what will happen?
CF: There will be a party with a cake and food and beverages, giveaways and free raffles, and a free boutique to pick up baby things you may need or want. Local community-based resources will be on hand to share information, as well as pediatric providers. All of the pediatric providers that I’m aware of in the valley have been invited to attend and will be there for at least a brief time.
CL: You’ll be able to meet healthcare providers and people from organizations face-to-face, have that opportunity to meet someone say from WIC, or someone from Northern Human Services.
CF: There will be a kids’ activity provided by the Conway Public Library, if you bring your older children. And there will be a photo booth for a photo memento! And some really good raffle items and prizes.
CL: It’ll be just a wonderful celebration, with the first 50 families receiving a tote full of baby supplies. We wanted to be able to say to every expectant family: “Welcome to the hive of our community,” to give them that sense of belonging. Our goal is not only to welcome families, but to connect them with one another and provide a one-stop-shop of our community’s resources.
You think of a new parent or someone who’s just moved to the community, and how overwhelming it can be to try to meet people or find a medical provider or childcare. We want this party to help them to feel like, oh, I belong here! And, I didn’t know about White Mountain Community Health Center, I could go there and also get dental. I think it’s a nice way of introducing the services we have and helping people feel welcome and connected.
SKT: What was the impetus behind this event? What made you feel like this was something our community needed?
CL: This flows from the Raising the Valley strategic plan, which was developed by a coalition of local organizations that work directly with families of young children and know intimately what needs there are in our community. There was also input from a series of focus groups with parents and caregivers of young children that we did a few years ago.
We’re part of the prenatal to birth workgroup, along with Schelley Rondeau, RN from Granite VNA. At our first meeting we were talking about what we want the community to know about us as a coalition, and I think it was Cheryl who said, if we want to welcome new families and caregivers, how about a community baby shower?
CF: I had been to a couple of conferences pre-Covid and learned that there are a few communities in NH who have been doing community baby showers for several years. I was like, “oh! I so want to do that in the Valley!”
A big component of it is normalizing accessing resources. How do we remove some of the stigma or barriers that prevent people from accessing resources? For example, we often recommend that new parents connect with Healthy Families America, which is a program for parents with children from birth to 3 years old, where a nurse comes in to teach parents about childhood development and creative ways to engage with their child. And people sometimes take that to mean we’re saying they’re a bad parent. No! What we’re saying is the resource is there, it’s free, they have a wealth of knowledge, and it’s fun!
CL: The goal is to make it as normal as a breastfeeding class or a childbirth class, those are things that most women get referred to, and there’s no real stigma. But there are a lot of other things that families can access. These things are for everyone. It should be like, I want to read a book, so I’m going to the library. We really want anyone expecting a baby to know about these things. It’s open for everyone. Here we are.
CF: Connecting new parents to pediatric providers is also an important part of this event. When I had my kids I literally had to make appointments with each pediatric provider to pick one. So the idea that they’re all going to be there is really exciting. You can meet them in a casual environment with no obligation, have a conversation and see who you feel comfortable with.
SKT: That’s huge, I see that question all the time on the MWV Moms Facebook page.
CF: Another reason we wanted to hold this event is to give new families a way to meet each other. This is often a challenge for the families I work with. We need places where families can connect and start building relationships, friendships, and support systems. Because that’s what it’s about when you’re raising a family, a support system. Some people have big support systems with blood family, but some have no support system, and they really need a way to create that, with what I call chosen family members. Everyone needs someone they can call.
CL: Not every family is fortunate to have a shower, so for those families that don’t, for some families this will be the only shower they have.
CF: This is going to be a real baby shower, layer cakes and games and all. It’s going to be festive, and I hope really, really fun.
Can you tell me more about the Diaper Depot and September’s Diaper Drive, and how they’re related to the baby shower?
CL: The Diaper Depot was actually started when Dr. Helvie, a pediatrician at Memorial Hospital, called myself and Caleb Gilbert, the director of Carroll County Coalition for Public Health (C3PH) – we’re all part of Raising the Valley. She said a lot of her families were saying they were having trouble affording diapers, and wanted to know if there was anything in the community that could meet that need. So a group of us put our heads together and asked, how can we get diapers out to families on an emergency basis in places that are easy for them to access?
We came up with three local organizations throughout the county – the health center, Tri-County CAP, and Ossipee Concerned Citizens Childcare Center – where people can now pick up diapers and wipes if they’re in need. Some have formula if we’re able to get that. It’s a great example of what Raising the Valley is about, local organizations working together to connect families with resources, just like the baby shower. And diapers will be available at the baby shower, too.
Since September is National Diaper Need Awareness month, we asked businesses and organizations throughout the entire county if they would place a bin where their patrons could drop off diapers and wipes so we can replenish the Diaper Depot sites. As part of the Baby2Baby program, we get a good supply of diapers and wipes every six months, but it runs out more quickly than that. So we’re really looking for these donations from the community to keep the Diaper Depot going.
SKT: If someone wants to help, what can they do?
CL: They can contact myself or Cheryl if they’d like to contribute in any way. For more ways to participate or support the event, talk to one of us.
CF: And they can drop diapers off at any Diaper Depot location, and at Children Unlimited. And definitely look for the bins at local businesses and libraries during September.
SKT: Is there anything else people should know about this event?
CF: We are hoping that it will be an annual event, at least. We’ll try to rotate the location so people are able to attend, depending on where you are in the county.
CL: I like the sense of celebrating who we are and what we have, who we are as a community, how we can help each other. It’s very hopeful and helpful. I think it’s a shift in the way of thinking: how can we provide the best we can for our families in a way that they feel heard, and want to be a part of it too. It’s a collaboration, not groups talking at you. We’re all together, eating together and playing games. This is something we’re all doing together.
CF: It’s evolved into a massive collaboration. It’s going to be nice for community members to see, that wow, all of these organizations have an interest in me and my family. We’re very fortunate, we live in a community that is very generous and we want people to feel like they belong here.
Raising the Valley organizations include C3PH, Child Care Aware of NH, Children Unlimited, Conway Public Library, The Diaper Depot, Family Connections Resource Center, family representatives, Granite VNA Healthy Families, Head Start, Health Market Connect, Memorial Hospital, New Futures, Northern Human Services, Saco River Medical Group, SAU 9, UNH Extension Nutrition Connections, White Mountain Community Health Center, and WIC – Goodwin Community Health.
Baby Shower Partners include Believe in Books, DHHS Maternal and Child Health, Dunkin’ Donuts, DHHS/NH Easy, First Congregational Church Ossipee, Flatbread, Hannaford, Key Club, The Kids Corner, Kiwanis, Morning Glory Boutique, North Conway Community Center, Shaw’s, and The SoakingPot.
For more information, contact Cheryl Frankowski at (603) 447-8900 x313 or cfrankowski@whitemountainhealth.org, or Cathy Livingston at (603) 901-3053 or clivingston@childrenunlimitedinc.org.