Happy 25th birthday, WestSide Baby! (No, you didn’t miss the party)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
This weekend, WestSide Baby celebrated its 25th anniversary.
And the nonprofit has grown big time, as has the need for its services providing essentials to families.
WS Baby – founded in West Seattle – is still headquartered in White Center, now in a group of warehouses and offices, but serves babies and kids as far north as Shoreline, and well into South King County too.
We stopped by their headquarters to talk with communications/development director Morgan McGinn about what the anniversary means, what’s next, and how you can help the hundreds of babies and children WS Baby serves every week – and the volunteers of all ages who make it happen.
No cake or confetti for the 25th birthday this weekend – McGinn says they’ll do the celebrating, along with looking back and forward, on June 5th, when they’re inviting supporters to their HQ for “A Night Out with WestSide Baby,” featuring food trucks, cocktails, a DJ, and community generosity.
Here’s what that generosity supports:
They partner with service providers all around King County who send in orders for what their young clients need – say, a baby who needs diapers, formula, wipes, and clothing. Those orders are fulfilled by volunteers from the stock of mostly donated items that fill the warehouse spaces.
And on Tuesdays, providers pick up the bags with those orders. Sometimes special donations enable them to offer extra items – rain boots, sippy cups, and one time they even got a donation of 200 Build-a-Bears. The basics, though, continue to fly out the door – diapers, wipes, car seats, socks (more than 7,500 pair per year!). Recently they got a “massive donation” of the latter – WS Baby had to cover the $10,000 in shipping costs, but that was a bargain for three semi-trucks full of car seats and strollers.
Other items that are often requested but not always available – hygiene items, like shampoo and baby wash. Sometimes corporate partners provide these, McGinn noted, but not enough to keep up with the requests.
It’s a big change from the early years in which WestSide Baby mostly just provided diapers (still their major stock in trade) – if you’ve been in West Seattle for at least 10 years or so, you might remember the “Stuff the Bus” donation drives every summer.
(WSB photo, ‘Stuff the Bus’ bus in 2012 West Seattle Grand Parade)
McGinn says the quarter-century celebration will bring back a chance to “Stuff the Bus” again in July – watch for details on that. (Currently their classic school bus is getting checked out by South Seattle College‘s Automotive Technology program to see if it can be summoned back into service.)
Then after focusing on diaper donations in July, WS Baby will focus on school-supply donations in August. But it all begins with the June 5 celebration, which McGinn says is intended to “reflect gratitude back to the community” as well as serving as a reunion of sorts for supporters past and present – some of whom, now that WS Baby has a 25-year history, include people who were beneficiaries themselves. For everyone involved, it’s about care and dignity: “Kids don’t get to choose their circumstances.”
In addition to offering tickets to “A Night Out with WestSide Baby,” this page on the organization’s website also includes a link for sharing your WS Baby memories, which they’ll compile to feature at the party. There are other ongoing ways to pitch in too – from donating to volunteering!
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