And the winner is... Team Blow Out!

Rose Haven is a resource center for abused and homeless women in Portland.  The facility serves over 2,000 women and their children every year.  Through my studies leading up to my degree, I have become passionate about women issues, so Rose Haven was a perfect fit for me as a community partner for my Capstone class.  Each week, averages of 20 to 30 women with children are helped by Rose Haven providing them with diapers for age’s infant through toddler.  Rose Haven recently lost their diaper source, and asked me to help find one for them.  Their current source has gone out of business.  When taking on this task I thought, well that should be easy, and I will be on to another project in no time.  Little did I know, finding a diaper supplier who is willing to donate to this worthy cause would be a challenge my entire Capstone class.

I started by reaching out to all the standard manufacturers such as Pampers, Huggies, and etc...  I also reached out to all the retail stores I could think of, such as Costco, Walmart, and more.    If I heard anything back from these types of companies at all, it was thanks, but no thanks.  I started to get frustrated as the list of options started to dwindle. I began to feel as if there was no one left to ask.  I started to lose hope as my frustration built.  I figured if I cannot get someone to give diapers continuously, then I had to come up with another idea.  I decided to do a diaper drive.  I had no idea how to go about conducting this type of drive.  I thought, who I can ask to help sponsor a diaper drive?  I did some research on the internet, and thought about reaching out to Walmart, Freddy’s, or maybe even local churches, to see if someone would support me in my idea.   On a whim, I asked the receptionist from my office what she thought about doing a diaper drive, rather than adopting a family, as we usually do during the holidays.  She was excited about doing something different, and loved the idea.  Having that little bit of encouragement gave me the confidence to ask the big boss if he would support the idea.  He not only wanted to support it but he was excited to do something new as well. Here is the flier posted at my work.

 

I went to the office meeting the next week prepared to make the most of the diaper drive.  I work in an office of 20 people.  We are sales people so we are very competitive.  I decided to divide the office into three teams, and challenged them to compete to see which team could bring in the most diapers.  I named the teams, Droopy Drawers (The management and receptionist), Diaper Genies (My team which consists of the inside sales group), and team Blow Out (the field sales team).  Everyone embraced this idea, and started reaching out to their families, friends, customers, and representatives in the industry.  It was an extreme success.  I was so pleased I had decided to do the drive within my office, and it made me even happier to know I work with a company full of people who want to help with such a wonderful cause for Portland.  I am proud of Rose Haven and the work they do and also proud of my co-workers for getting behind me in this project.   This is not a solution for Rose Haven by any means.  I am happy with the success, of the drive but, I know this is just a stop gap to a bigger long term problem that we need to fix.

Below are the final numbers of the diaper drive.

Team Blow Out wins with 6,664

Team Droopy Drawers in second place with 5,594

Sorry Team Diaper Genies you came in last at 2,624

All together we collected 14,882 diapers and wipes for Rose Haven.

Needless to say, I am sad my team did not win the contest.  We did the count by the individual amount of diapers or wipes provided.  I am grateful that everyone was competitive, and got behind this worthy cause, so I lose graciously for the good of diapers.  If you knew how competitive I am you would understand that losing isn’t easy for me. This project has taught me to have faith in people, to never give up, and that even if you cannot fix the problem you might still be able to do something about it.  Although, I am disappointed with not finding the long term source for diapers, I do feel accomplished that we are able to supply diapers for at least a few months before we will need to do something again.  

~Heather Glass