“One of our members came to a book club meeting with the idea to have a 12-months-of-sharing project,” said Ruth Hill of the book club. The woman was inspired after seeing a friend face difficulties because of the pandemic and decided now is an important time to help others.
“If you look at it, COVID hit everyplace hard, and we realized that some of the charities could do with a lift, and we were all in a position that we could do a little something,” Hill said.
With more than 20 members, they figured that if everybody contributed something, together they would be donating something more significant.
“It is so encouraging to know that, No. 1, they heard about us, and that hearing about what we were doing was enough to inspire them to reach inside themselves, look at their own resources and support,” said the Rev. Vanessa McQueen, who established Chrysalis.
The diaper donation was especially fortunate because it allowed a family to have diapers that otherwise could have gone without, because among the diapers were some that were Size 3, and those had run out, McQueen said.
“The powerful thing is, they’re supporting families and babies that they’ll never meet, and they’ll never know,” McQueen said.
Chrysalis was created last July and opened its doors in late September. Families needing diapers or clothing for young children can call 513-737-7223.
“We read a lot of different books, have fun, but we also wanted to give something back, and this was the way we came up to do that,” Hill said.
As the group sat around suggesting ideas for donations, one lady suggested a diaper bank.
“Research was done, and we came up with Chrysalis as a diaper bank we wanted to support,” Hill said. “We had a lot of diapers, and we were overwhelmed and overjoyed to be able to give them.”
The Bookies’ July charity will be Girls with Pearls, a Norwood-based group that builds leadership in girls in the fourth through sixth grades and provides them strands of imitation pearls they can wear as an outward sign of their leadership.
Meanwhile, Chrysalis also recently received a $6,000 grant from the Elsa Heisel Sule Charitable Foundation of Fort Mitchell, Ky. “specifically to purchase diapers and clothing for children,” McQueen said.
Others also have been collecting diapers for families, because they know that if parents don’t have diapers to send with their children to day care or preschool, the children often are not accepted that day, putting the parents’ jobs in jeopardy.
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