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Just hours to go until the New Year, and that means time for reflection on the old one – individually and organizationally. WestSide Baby‘s executive director Nancy Woodland asked if we would share this with you:

As 2013 comes to a close, I’d like to thank the West Seattle community for its amazing support this year. We have increased our service by thousands of children, started to reach new neighborhoods and stretched ourselves to do more. Most of this is because of this community. While we continue to reach to other parts of Seattle for support, we want to pause and acknowledge what has happened locally. Individuals, families and children have collected 110,000 MORE diapers for us this year than in 2010. That’s incredible and, in large part, because of West Seattle!! Donations of new car seats have increased and we’ve been able to distribute 5,000 clothing bags mostly from the used items that come from the children prancing around our local parks and elementary schools.

Since opening our new rented facility in White Center in 2010, we have almost doubled the number of volunteer hours donated, from about 5,000 to nearly 10,000! This growth translates directly to increased impact all around King County and most of these volunteers come from within ten miles. In the last week, we’ve had to close down to item donations because of the requirement to do inventory (volunteers did most of that work too!) but we look forward to re-opening to item donations on January 2nd. Thanks to all for your patience in holding on to the things you’d like to clear out of your homes after the holidays.

On Sunday our constituents received an e-mail outlining the continued need for car seats, diapers, basics, and financial support. We focused on a poignant photo by (WSB contributor) Christopher Boffoli, that captured a rollover accident where an infant’s stroller was thrown from the car but the child had only minor injuries. I can only assume a car seat played a role in that.

The interconnectedness of everything we do it what makes WestSide Baby special. From local families, to local businesses to large corporations and foundations the combined support allow us to do what we do best, focus on the critical items to keep children safe, warm and dry. As Mary from Mom’s Plus agency shared with us, “We work with homeless families and it means so, so, so much to them to receive assistance with diapers. It means that they have extra money for food and other necessary expenses and it also means that they can change their babies diapers more often.”

If you want to know how you can be a part of what we do, please consider donating, signing up online to volunteer or to attend our big benefit Tea on February 9, telling someone else about us – even if they don’t live in West Seattle and please continue doing all the things you do – we need you as we grow. Thank you, West Seattle!

P.S. Today’s the last day to get an earlybird $35 ticket for the WS Baby Tea – go here.