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Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Elnora and I had the chance to stop down by the milk bank here in Columbus yesterday to visit with the staff for a bit and to get some updates. We also got to drop off the first check from the Lactivist fundraising project. $1000!!! That's what Lactivist readers and shoppers raised for the milk bank in about six months! You guys all rock! Thanks to everyone that made a purchase, sent a link, told a friend, or sent a donation of their own to add to the pot. :)So some updates and cool bits of information...
When I donated i think I was one of the first twelve moms...I started donating RIGHT when they finally got their equipment up and running. The last time I stopped down, about six months ago, they had grown to their 50th donor. Exciting stuff! This time around they're up to about 175 donors! Interest is really taking off and they've now established drop-off points in Cincinnati, Athens, Dayton, Toledo, Cleveland and even Wisconsin. Apparently, there are some volunteer pilots that have agreed to transport the milk down to our bank while they're logging their flight hours. Very cool. :)
Another nifty bit of news? They're getting ready to purchase some new testing equipment that will not only let them measure things like calorie count, but also protein levels, fat levels and several other bits of information that will allow for more detaild nutritional labeling of donor milk. That will make it even easier to make sure that babies are getting the type of milk that they need.
Finally, they told me that a class of 7th and 8th graders from a school in Ohio had read about the milk bank in a newspaper article and decided to do a fundraiser of their own. They studied up on the benefits of breast milk and donor milk in class, held their fundraiser and sent the money to the bank. How encouraging to see school-age kids thinking about these things. :)
Overall, it was great as usual to stop down there. I hadn't spoken to them in several months, so they didn't know I was expecting again. I'm also getting excited thinking about being able to donate again. They're really expanding the network of hospitals that they service and the need for donor milk is always growing. I'll be glad to be able to get back in the trenches and kick in my share from the Laycock dairy again. ;)
Labels: Milk Banking and Sharing
Wow! $1,000!!!
But you have already given them more than that -- the milk you donated had to be worth two or three times that!
Yeah, the milk really is the big thing in my mind, but they desperately need the dollars too. It's expensive stuff running a milk bank.
The nice thing is that the USA Today article got me some more interest in the 30 day ebook and that is setup to encourage folks to make a donation if they feel they got value from the book. Had two more donations come in from readers just today. ;) Yay!
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