AHA! The official answer about pins!

I received the following e-mail from the material resources co-ordinator at MCC Ontario: 

Hello Jennifer,

I received your email about having a baby shower for MCC.  What a fantastic idea!  I haven't had a chance to look at your blog yet, but I will do that.  

You were wondering about the diaper pins...we actually use steel diaper pins, not the baby ones with the plastic cover on the end.  We found that the steel ones were just as useful, and much less expensive.

Any other questions, feel free to email or call me.

Thanks, and good luck with your newborn kit collection!

My best,
Material Resources Coordinator
Mennonite Central Committee Ontario
*******
SO... it looks like plain old steel safety pins (2 inches / 5 cm long) are what they are looking for, though it doesn't explicity prevent you from buying diaper pins (i.e. plastic capped safety pins) so if you already have found diaper pins you may use them.  In the mean time, I will not be buying a bulk bag of diaper pins and will be looking for safety pins myself.  If you are still having any problems finding the pins, please let me know!

And, some good news to share... we already have ten people who have committed to building kits, for a minimum of 16 kits! Thank you all so much for your generosity! If you haven't already told me that you'll be participating, I'd love to know about it.   God bless you all!

Much love,

Jen and Rich

You'd love to join in but you're busy that day or you live too far away?

Fear not! You can still take part in the baby shower.  MCC has drop off locations across North America.  In Canada, there are locations in Alberta, BC, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Quebec.  In the USA you'll find locations in California, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico,  South Dakota, Texas, Virginia,  and Washington.  For exact locations, click here.If you live in the GTA you can bring them to Rich or Jen ahead of time, we might even be able to come and pick it up. Just let us know! 

If you really don't feel inclined to build a kit but want to participate, you can always make a monetary donation at the mcc.org website. 

Thanks everyone and thanks to all of you who have already pledged kits!

-Jen and Rich

Diaper Pins!

Wow! Diaper pins are not that easy to come by! I just had a lovely chat with the owner of a local cloth diapering store and she informed me that she can not even purchase them any longer for resale! But fear not my friends. There is an American distributor that sells 144 pins (enough for 36 newborn kits) for under $20.00. I'm still waiting to hear back from them regarding shipping costs, but if it's reasonable I will purchase 144 or 288 pins that I can then distribute to you fine people when you are ready to build your kit. 

Have you seen diaper pins for sale anywhere around here?

THANKS!

We're having a baby!

Welcome!

Baby number four is on the way. We want to celebrate our newest little person with a great big family-friendly baby shower and bbq with a twist: instead of presents for our baby, we're asking you to bring presents for MCC. Specifically, we're asking you to help us build a pile of newborn kits that MCC will in turn distribute to moms in clinics, hospitals, and refugee camps around the world. 

This blog will keep you posted on party details; kit contents; the best prices we come across for the various items; where to find those elusive diaper pins; and other ways you can get involved. We love MCC and the work that they are doing, and we hope that you will come to love them too! If you are looking for more ways to get involved in local compassion projects we'll be sharing ideas here too. If you are already involved in a compassion project and you're looking for others to join you, please let us know as we'd love to help you connect with our other readers.